


Blame it on the boys

by lesbians4souda



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Btw the fic isn't actually super angsty or anything, Happy Ending, I'm not great at tanaka speech I apologize, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Slow Burn, Swearing, Teen Angst, The characters are all like 17 in this, but the characters kinda are sometimes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 22,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26322910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbians4souda/pseuds/lesbians4souda
Summary: When on a school trip, Sonia decides to take desperate measures to get, a love spell so he can target his harassments to someone else. It of course fails, she wasn't really expecting much anyway. But then her best friend seems to have suddenly caught feelings for a certain someone, could it be that it had to do with her experiment? Or is it something different?
Relationships: Soda Kazuichi & Tanaka Gundham, Soda Kazuichi/Tanaka Gundham
Comments: 122
Kudos: 384





	1. Prologue's and Plane Flights

**Author's Note:**

> If you want you can follow me on twitter: @lesbians4souda aka the same as here, I'm pretty cool if I say so myself.

"Man with motion sickness claims the window seat!" Kazuichi quickly scuffled over to the window seat before his friends could get there. Soon after, Hajime took place next to him, and Chiaki took place in the aisle seat. Immediately Kazuichi started talking again. "Aren't you guys excited? I'm excited." Though he knew he probably wouldn't be very excited the moment the plane got in the air. Hajime raised an eyebrow, "you're acting like you've never been on a school trip before." "I haven't." He replied simply. "I skipped, let's just say my dad was fuckin' fuming." Neither of his friends were very sure what to say to that, so Hajime just said: "well, you can't really expect much when they send a robot rabbit to look after us, I mean do they think that low of us?"

Sonia dropped her hand luggage in the aisle seat and took place next to Gundham. "I cannot help but notice that this plane is rather empty," she said to Gundham, but she was looking around the plane while saying it. The plane was indeed very empty, the only people there were the sixteen students and Usami. "I assume Jabberwock Island mustn't be a popular destination around this time of year." With those words she shrugged of the odd feeling she felt.

It took a while for the plane to take off but when it did, Kazuichi immediately clinged onto the seat in front of him. "I'm gonna fuckin' puke," he put his head in-between his knees in the hope that it would make him feel better. It did not. After what to him felt like hours, but what was probably around 20 minutes, the worst of it had worn off and the feeling that he was going to vomit over the whole plane was practically gone. Though he could not wait until this plane flight was over so he could kiss the ground and never fly again. He did not like to think about the fact that he'd eventually have to fly back to Japan.  
It did not take long for the pink haired teen to glance to his side, specifically to the passengers that were a little bit farther front in the plane, on the left side. Specifically at Sonia, he was definitely looking at Sonia and not at anyone else sitting close to her. In fact, he was so focused on 'definitely, a 100% looking at Sonia' that he didn't even notice her glancing back.

"He's looking again." Sonia sighed, turning to her friend slightly furrowed his eyebrows, or at least he would have if he hadn't shaven them off. "Are you speaking of the pathetic pink one?" Gundham turned around to peak over his seat, but the mechanic was now admiring the back of the seat in front of him. He couldn't help but notice that the other's side profile was not unappealing, for a mere mortal that was. "It appears he has halted his improper glaring." Sonia let out another sigh, she was really getting sick of Kazuichi's behaviour. He wasn't an unfriendly guy but she was so done with all the drooling and the 'miss Sonia', she wished for it to be over soon. Strangely enough, her wish would come true soon, but since she didn't know that, she had a little plan up her sleeve.

The fact that Kazuichi was was practically harassing his friend bothered Gundham, it had bothered him for a while. The pink haired mechanic made Sonia uncomfortable, and he wished he could just curse the bastard, curse him to the fiery pits of hell. He didn't hate Kazuichi, not by a long shot, but if he was dangling of a cliff he'd probably have to weigh out his options for a second before he would save him.

Kazuichi hid his face in his hands, god he was so close to being caught that time, if it had taken him one second longer to turn around, he would have stared right at Gundham. He reminded himself to be less suspicious he was not planning on having any awkward encounters this trip, especially not with Gundham.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the kinda boring prologue and also sorry for sucking at tanaka speech lol


	2. Vending Machines and Magic Spells

"You're going to do what?!" Mahiru exclaimed. It had been a few hours since they landed on Jabberwock Island and after setting up their cottages, Sonia had decided to go on a walk with one of the girls. "I know it sounds stupid but I really want to try," Sonia chuckled a bit when she realized how idiotic her plan sounded when she said it out loud. It's probably why she decided to tell it to Mahiru instead of Gundham, she just knew that his laughter would make her want to disappear into the ground.   
"Okay but seriously Sonia, I get that you want to be rid of that sleazeball but a 'love potion'? You know that won't work, this isn't Lord of the Rings or whatever." This was definitely the reaction Sonia expected, but she didn't know what else to do. Just telling him to stop wouldn't work, and she couldn't think of many other options, unless she was planning to get arrested for murder, which she wasn't. Plus, she had been interested in trying out something like this, so she thought it wouldn't really hurt to try. "Where would you even find such a thing." Mahiru said it more to herself than as a question to Sonia, but she still answered. "It looked like a rip-off Reddit site to be honest." "That doesn't surprise me to be honest." Mahiru mumbled back.

Kazuichi fell on the bed with a sigh. After that horrible plane ride he wanted to lay down and never stand up again, and he honestly wasn't planning on standing up either, maybe it would be fun to see how long it would take before Hajime came knocking on his door to see where he was. While laying on his bed he finally had time to think about one certain little thing. He would be practically living with a certain person, who's name he didn't even want to think about just incase that would be the thing to solidify Kazuichi's growing feelings. Well he wouldn't be living with him exactly, but he would be sleeping only a few doors down and he'd see him every day for the upcoming weeks. The mechanic wasn't sure if that was something he looked forward to or was terrified of.

That was something he would have to decide some other time, as a knock on his door interrupted his train of thought. Kazuichi groaned and made no attempt to get up. "Open the door pig shit!" Accompanied with even louder knocking. Oh great, Hiyoko, just the person Kazuichi loved to see. He didn't care to fix his appearance, Hiyoko would probably say he looked disgusting either way, but it was whatever he was just glad he wasn't insulted as much as Mikan was, poor girl. "Whatd'ya want." Surprisingly Hiyoko was smiling sweetly, which immediately made him suspicious.   
He had all the right to be, Hiyoko had fucked up the vending machine in the convenience store by kicking it to hard in the hope for free candy. Now she wanted Kazuichi to fix it for her, and quick. "I'll see what I can do." If she had been anyone he would have told them to wait until tomorrow, it was 5 pm after all and he was hoping to go to the restaurant to get something to eat in a bit, but that would have to wait. However seeing as Hiyoko was.. Hiyoko, he said yes. With a sigh Kazuichi grabbed his toolbox from the suitcase he still hadn't unpacked, and left for the convenience store.

Sonia knew that her plan wasn't going to work, she was almost quite sure of it. She honestly wasn't even doing it anymore out of the small sliver of hope that it would do something, now she just wanted to do it for fun and out of curiosity. She had never tried anything resembling witchcraft before, she had found it interesting though. She was even a little bit excited to tell her Gundham about her, most probably, failed experiment tomorrow.

Gundham glanced at the clock, 6 pm. He hadn't eaten anything since they got to the airport in Japan, but he didn't feel like sitting with all the others in the restaurant either. Though.. maybe the convenience store would have something. That's what he decided on, he has it when exploring the island for a bit and it wasn't too far. For a moment he thought about asking Sonia to come with him, but then remembered her saying she'd be busy around his hour. "Then I shall venture alone, dark devas, come forth." It didn't take long before the dark devas had all taken place either in his coat or hidden in his scarf. Then, he ventured to the convenience store.

Kazuichi probably hadn't thought about the fact that someone might walk in on him, seeing as he was blasting his music loud enough for Gundham to hear it before he even entered the building. He didn't know the song that was playing, but he knew it was probably some punk band yelling about corporations or the rich or something. Gundham took a deep breath before opening the door, preparing himself for the social interaction he'd probably need to have when he entered.

Of course who else could he expect besides this neon abomination, he could see him in the back, his body half under the vending machine. The sight of the guy made him feel half annoyed half, something else which he couldn't put his finger on, but he did not like the feeling. He walked up to the bright yellow jumpsuit. "Souda." Nothing, Gundham hoped he wasn't being ignored. He repeated it again, this time much louder.  
Kazuichi slid out from under the vending machine, Gundham could see dust on his hair and cheeks, for some reason, it made his heart skip a beat. "Huh?" It didn't take long for him to understand where Gundham's annoyed tone came from. "Shit," he quickly pressed a button on the speaker and it went silent. "Sorry I didn't expect anyone to come by." Kazuichi could feel a sheepish grin creeping on his face, but quickly shook it off in place for a more monotone expression. The gothic looking man in turn just huffed, "you foolish mortal."

Kazuici jumped up and followed Gundham who had now moved to to other side of the convenience store. "Uhm you're here to get food right? I was just 'bout to take a break so-" but the other interupted him, "do not even attempt to ask me out for dinner, mortal." He got something edible of the shelves and flustered he made his way back to his cottage.

"Wait, hey! I was NOT tryna asking ya out!" Kazuichi yelled in an offended tone, but Gundham was already out of ear sight, or he was ignoring him, he wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter. How would he even know that Kazuichi was attempting to ask if they could eat together, it was implied but Gundham didn't have to shoot him down so rudely. He knew the guy didn't necessarily like him, but he felt much more rude than normally just now. He sighed, he could have expected that eventually Gundham would come to dislike him more and more, it wasn't like he was treating him or his best friend very well. Well.. he might as well continue working on the vending machine.

Gundham started to panic, what was that? He felt as if, if he hadn't stopped Kazuichi just then, he would have said yes. Why, why in the seven circles of hell would he want to spend time with that lowly human? He spend half of that night worrying about it, how he must ask Sonia about what this mortal feeling meant.

The next morning, Gundham went to the restaurant for breakfast. Everything was fine until Kazuichi came in, later than most of the others and with messy hair, not that his hair was normally much less messier. Gundham held his breath in the hope Kazuichi would look right past him but no, he sat right in front of him. He probably did that because that would mean he was also sitting next to his friend Chiaki but Gundham wasn't thinking straight.

Just like how he noticed the other's side profile the other day, he today noticed his front profile. It looked, nicer than he remembered it looking in the past, though he had to admit he hadn't ever gotten very close to the mortal anyway. Maybe he would look even better from closer up. He jolted up from his chair at the thought. "What the hell Tanaka!" Fuyuhiko grumbled with a full mouth when Gundham's knee hit the table. "It seemed to have slipped my mind to provide the dark devas of destruction with food." He quickly made his way to the door, from the corner of his eye he could see a confused looking Kazuichi. He had to see Sonia, now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first and probably last time I do two chapters in one day lol. But I'm pretty excited to write this so hopefully I can update often!
> 
> I feel like I've been using some crutch words this chapter though..
> 
> Anyway let me know what you think so far :)


	3. Crushes and Cottages

"My dark queen we must discuss.. important matters." Gundham spoke after knocking on Sonia's door. A sleepy looking Sonia opened the door, she was still in her pajamas and her hair was unkept. Gundham frowned, normally she was properly dressed around this hour. "I stayed up late," she grumbled in response to his look. Which was true, but not for the reason her messy desk might imply. Before Gundham could ask about who had ravaged said desk she told him: "I was experimenting with something yesterday afternoon, I have not had the time to tidy up." But as Gundham walked into the room, that's exactly what she attempted to so. "What is it you wanted to talk about?" She turned back to her friend and finally smiled the smile she was so famous for.

Hajime did not understand why his friend was being so frantic about this. "-and then he just left? It was so fuckin' weird he just stared at me for a full effin' minute and then ran for it." Kazuichi rambled on. Hajime rolled his eyes, even though he'd only been listening to Kazuichi babbling on for about five minutes, it felt like hours. "I really don't understand why you're so obsessed with this all of a sudden, it was probably nothing, I mean you're talking like you're in lo-" but he was stopped be a slim hand on his mouth. "Don't ya dare finish that sentence." The pink haired boy hissed, "whatever you're implying is not true." The brunette frowned, he was only joking why was Kazuichi getting so.. defensive? Oh no, he couldn't actually be- he didn't want to finish that thought. Though it wasn't as big of a surprise as he thought it would be.

The fact that Kazuichi liked men had always been just that to Hajime, a fact. Even though his friend was deep in the closet and would swear to anyone who wasn't him or Chiaki that he was as straight as an unbendable ruler. On the other hand, this was not the person he thought would be Kazuichi's type. Though the more he thought about it the more he remembered suspension instances in the last few months.  
In class, more often than not Hajime saw his friend glancing over at a certain someone, at first glance it might seem like Sonia seeing as she always sat close to the person the mechanic was actually looking at. The more often he saw him peeking in that direction, the more he noticed that Sonia wasn't the one he was looking at. But he seemed to have almost forgotten that with how persistent Kazuichi was in pushing his crush on Sonia on everyone. However, now he was staring to think he only used that to hide something else..

"I mean Chiaki was there, 't was weird, right Chiaki?" Kazuichi was not giving up. "Huh?" The sleepy girl hadn't been paying attention. "You should stop gaming until 5 am in the morning, it's bad for you." Hajime sighed, this was something he told her at least four times a week. Even if Chiaki hadn't been so sleep deprived, he bet she'd also think Kazuichi was being over dramatic. "Oh I wasn't gaming last night," she yawned. Kazuichi sighed, she was going to be useless in trying to convince Hajime that he did not like Gundham, which he didn't-. Oh fuck it, he might be able to fool others but he wasn't gonna make himself believe this lie, yes, he did like Gundham, but just a little bit. It wasn't even that Kazuichi was afraid to tell his friends that the person he liked was a dude, that wasn't a secret to his two friends, but it was to practically every other person he knew, and he was terrified of them finding out. It wasn't like this was the first guy he liked either, he'd even dated one before. However, this was different, this didn't feel like something he would be able to keep as a secret easily.

"I've seemed to have-" for the first time in a while Gundham struggled to find his words, "Perhaps," He just didn't know what to say, he didn't even know what was going on. Before he could name every single synonym for the word 'maybe', Sonia finally started talking, after seemingly having realized something. "You don't have a.. what do they call it again? Crush on someone right?" Gundham's eyes widened, was that what it was? No, no that couldn't be it. "I'd rather not pronounce whatever this person makes me feel as.. that." He mumbled, she could hear the disgust in his voice.  
The blonde knew exactly that meant she was right. "It's not that I have paid attention to these horrid feelings," Gundham continued in an attempt to save himself from the mess that was heart, though technically his brain, "not since around yesterday at least?" Now it was time for Sonia to be shocked. Yesterday.. no it couldn't be, was it? Maybe that stupid spell she saw as a fun experiment did work, but if it did then it all went horribly wrong. "This person," she was careful with wording her sentence, "do they happen to be a certain, I don't know, pink haired mechanic?" She really hoped she was mistaken, not only because she wasn't necessarily fond of Kazuichi, but also because that would mean her theory might be right. Though when she heard her friend dashing out of her cottage, she already knew the answer.

He laid on his bed, again, Kazuichi remembered the moment his fake crush started well. It was probably a few months ago, maybe three or four. He'd been trying to take casual glances at Gundham but he hadn't really succeeded at the 'casual' part. Surprisingly the one being stared at didn't notice a thing, but someone else did.  
"Someone caught yer eye huh," Teruteru whispered from behind him. His heart stopped, fuck, and this was only a few weeks after he started developing a.. crush? He wasn't sure yet at this point. "Into blondes huh? Aren't we all." What-  
Then he realised, Teruteru was talking about Sonia. "Y-yes," Kazuichi replied, trying hide the relieve in his voice, "M-miss Sonia is very.. h-hot." Miss? Why the hell did he say miss? He sounded like an idiot. He didn't have to worry about that now, because the cook hadn't seen through him at all. At first that seemed like a good thing, however word spreads fast. In less than a week Kazuichi was widely known for being a 'Sonia simp'. Instead of doing what any normal person would do and deny the claims, he instead decided that this meant he had to keep his facade up.  
Then, just like yesterday, he heard a knock on his door. Kazuichi sighed, he assumed it would be Hiyoko, mad at him for adding some improvements to the vending machine. Today he was not planning on opening the door for her, or whoever it may be. Sadly for him he hadn't locked the door. Lucky for him, it wasn't Hiyoko.

Kazuichi? Really, him? That's all that rushed through Gundham's mind.  
Kazuichi.. out of all people.  
Out of all people to catch feelings for, he had picked a guy with a terrible hairline, a horrid hair colour and that stupid, stupid, stupid smile that made caterpillars turn into butterflies.  
Out of all people, he had to pick someone who was pining after his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few things
> 
> 1\. Omg I am so sorry for all the , and stuff it's my biggest writing flaw I think, like who do I think I am? Henry James?
> 
> Also uhh tbh I wanted to post this chapter earlier BUT DAMN I've been busy these past few days, first a full day of college then work then college and yeah you get it. It's still super on time though so I'm happy. I wanna try to post something at least once or maybe twice a week but we'll see how it goes. (Yes I'm writing as a go whoops)


	4. Heart to Hearts and Heart to Hamsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignore the fact that I'm avoiding letting Gundham talk so I don't have to attempt to do his speech.
> 
> Also recently I started to notice that the American (in feet and inches) and Japanese (in centimetres) heights for the characters aren't the same?? Like kazuichi is taller than me in cm's but shorter than me in feet HOW DOES THAT WORK anyway I prefer the centimetres anyway so if I ever need it I'll work with that

"Hey Kaz," a small sleepy voice said, "you left your door unlocked." She quietly sat down on the side of his bed, facing Kazuichi. The mechanic felt relieved that it was Chiaki and not Hajime came to confront him. "Is there something you want to talk about?" Kazuichi noticed that Chiaki was trying let him down as slowly as she could. "Well ya prolly already know that I-" Kazuichi stopped himself when he noticed that his tone sounded a bit too sarcastic. "Sorry," he mumbled.  
Chiaki frowned, as if deep in thought. "I thought you were the one that didn't know." Now it was time for Kazuichi to frown, "what?" "I mean, at least admit you did everything you could to deny it." He bit his lip, that was true, but it probably didn't hurt to be honest with one person beside himself right? "Right." He muttered, but Kazuichi didn't know where to begin, he hadn't ever talked about this with anyone, not even himself, how was he even going to start?  
"How long has it been?" Chiaki asked after what seemed like hours of silence, she could see on the frowning face of her friend that he wasn't going to start talking on his own. "A few months ago," it took a few seconds before he said it and when he did it was almost a whisper. Chiaki knew her pink haired friend was sensitive, but she still was a little shocked to see tears welling in his eyes. She scooted a little closer so she could wrap her arm around him. Then the gamer realised something, a few months ago, that was when Kazuichi started liking Sonia. Did he like two people at the same time? No, that didn't seem like a thing he would do. "You never liked Sonia," she whispered it to herself, but since Kazuichi lay leaning on her shoulder, he could easily hear it.

"Yeah." Was all the mechanic managed to bring out. "I was caught and then I panicked and just went with the story that I liked Sonia. I couldn't just go on because then someone would eventually find out it was all a lie so I may have.. over done it a little." Chiaki distanced herself from him so she could look him in the eyes. "Seriously, a little? That's an understatement Kazuichi." He flushed red, her words sounded rather harsh but he knew they were true, he had surely been a pretty shitty person towards Sonia and Gundham. He blinked a few times, oh no, he'd never realised that besides Sonia, Gundham probably felt the same way as the princess about him, that was not a great revelation. "I'm glad you're honest with me though." Chiaki's stern face changed into a smile. Kazuichi in turn shrugged, "not like it matters, Gundham hates me and you've heard the rumours about him and Sonia." The gamer giggled, "I can assure you that he isn't Sonia's type," then her face shifted into something more serious, "and I doubt Gundham truly hates you." She yawned, "doesn't mean he likes you either though." She didn't want to get his hopes up, she really didn't think Gundham hated Kazuichi, but she knew the chance that the breeder would even like the mechanic as a friend, let alone ever see him in a romantic way was next to nothing. "I'm feeling sleepy, so unless you want me to nap here, I think I'm gonna go." Chiaki stood up and stretched, from the corner of her eye she could see Kazuichi nodding. "You should really talk to Sonia though, apologise." She said before leaving the pink haired's cottage.

Gundham stared intently at his four dark devas of destruction. "It seems like hell has finally been brought to earth," other people might see it as odd, talking about your problems to animals, but for Gundham it was the most normal thing. He even felt more comfortable talking to animals than to humans, you never knew what a human would do, they might get furious or laugh at you. Animals on the other hand, they just seemed so understanding, they listened. When he continued talking he was barely even looking at any of the four devas, he felt way to embarassed to look into those black beady eyes. "The devil has entered my brain and attempted to exterminate it," he just hadn't expected the devil to have pink hair and a thing for cars.  
He burried his head in his knees, what was he going to do with this.. crush, as Sonia had named it. He couldn't just act upon it right? God no, kissing Kazuichi or other things along those lines, he couldn't even imagine it. He could never even imagine sitting close to that mechanic, their faces only inches apart. Kazuichi's face slowly coming closer to his, almost being able to count the freckles on his face, the shorter guy cupping his hands around his face, closing his eyes and enclosing the distance between-  
"AHH." Gundham yelled, his cheeks were burning. He looked at the startled hamsters, hoping they hadn't noticed what had been going on. No, no he could never imagine that, he could never imagine anything happening between him and Kazuichi.

The mechanic on the other hand was pacing through his cottage. Chiaki was right, apologising to Sonia was on the top of his priority list, he couldn't even imagine the shit he put the poor girl through. Apologising to her was the first thing he'd do tomorrow, well, after breakfast. He stood still for the first time in what felt like forever, what was he going to do about Gundham. He continued pacing. He could just confess, he shook his head at the thought. Gundham rejecting him wouldn't be the end of the world but he knew the breeder didn't like him, what if he outed him? That would be bad, very bad. Maybe it was better if he just didn't do anything. Yes, that would surely be better than dealing with his feelings. Sure he'd be able to hide a small crush, Kazuichi wasn't all to confident in it though. However he may be able to fool a few people, most importantly, Gundham.

Gundham had also decided he was going to do absolutely nothing about whatever he felt towards this certain mechanic. Actually, he was going to do more than nothing, he was going to do everything in his power to avoid anything that had to do with this guy, he would avoid him like he had the plague. He looked up at the clock and realized he hadn't gone outside since running from Sonia's cottage, which was multiple hours ago now. He took a deep breath before opening the door and decided to head towards the hotel. To his disappointment, Sonia was nowhere to be seen.

Sonia on the other hand was in her cottage pondering about something. Did she really want to tell her best friend that it may or may not be her fault that he was suddenly pining after some guy they both did not like? She wasn't even sure it was her fault, it probably wasn't. But it was all so coincidental wasn't it? She sighed, maybe it was all just coincidence, maybe she just didn't want to believe that out of all people Gundham fell for.. that guy.

Gundham heard voices coming from the hotel lobby. He convinced himself that socializing would be a good thing, he slowly opened the door and peaked through, in the back he could see a few people hanging out, a short blond, the swords woman and oh no. He immediately closed the door, that was a laughing side profile he did not want to see, not today not evee. He sternly paced back to his cottage, today was not a day for socializing.


	5. Talks and Wonders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuichi has a talk and maybe accidentally comes out to someone oh no

The next morning at breakfast Kazuichi kept stealing rather noticeable glances at Sonia, she was sitting with Gundham, which wasn't out of the ordinary. Still, Kazuichi was glad there'd only be two people that would hear him just in case he embarassed himself. In theory it really wasn't that hard to just stand up, walk over to the table Sonia was sitting at and ask her if she could talk. It was not that hard, if he kept telling himself that maybe he'd believe it.  
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before walking over to the table.

From the corner of his eye Gundham could see pink hair covered by a beanie approaching, he immediately froze, Kazuichi was coming right at them. "Uh hey." He seemed nervous, Gundham could see that instead of looking at him or Sonia, Kazuichi was paying attention to a wrench in his hand. He twirled it, then threw the wrench in the air, caught it, put it back in his pocket, and then repeated every few seconds. "Hello Kazuichi." Sonia smiled, though it was rather forced. Gundham looked at the mechanic while he talked, but the other didn't return his gaze for even a second. Not that he minded, no Gundham was glad he didn't want to have to look that mortal in the eyes for even a second. "I really need to talk to you, alone." Kazuichi cut straight to the chase. Sonia sighed and Gundham could her she was trying her best to sound as friendly as possible. "Kazuichi you know I-" but the pink haired male cut her off. "Don't worry it's not some other love confession again like last time, and the time before that." He could see Sonia didn't necessarily believe it but he had to be persistent, "I swear this is the last time after this I won't ever bother you again." This seemed to persuade Sonia, but only slightly.

"If ya want I can pinky swear on it," but when he reached out his hand to her, he could see they still had grease on them from when he was tinkering on something this morning. "Nevermind," he let out an awkward laugh and attempted to wipe off the grease on his already dirty jumpsuit. Sonia sighed, "sure." "Alright!" an excited smile formed on Kazuichi face, "can ya meet me in the library in like an hour?" It wasn't even a question, he was already out of the restaurant before he could hear an answer.   
"I think he is deceiving you." Gundham whispered to his friend when he was out of earshot. He doubted that Kazuichi would really leave her alone this 'talk'. "I know," Sonia replied, "I don't think it really hurts to try though." She smiled.

When Sonia got to the library, Kazuichi was already there. He was lying on a table, mindlessly flipping through a comic book, he looked like he'd been there, bored, for a while. "Hey Sonia!" He sat up and carelessly tossed away the comic when he saw her walking in. "Have a seat." He lowered himself down on a chair and gestured to a chair on the other side of the table. Sonia took a deep breath before walking over to the chair Kazuichi was pointing at.

Gundham on the other hand was left wondering about his friend's meeting while going on a walk with the dark devas. He could just ask Sonia what it was about when she came back, normally she'd tell him without asking anyway. Still, it felt different. Now he had another reason to not like Kazuichi's love confessions, besides the fact that blonde friend didn't like them. However, he did not want to think about that.  
All those times Kazuichi confessed his love to Sonia, they'd been quite stupid, though often Gundham couldn't help but be humoured by them. Especially when he was with Sonia during said confessions, anytime a smile crept on his face from the corny words that came from the mechanics mouth, he'd be welcomed by a glaring Kazuichi. Though now Gundham wondered if.. what if it was him Kazuichi confessed to, instead of Sonia, what would he say? He was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"I never actually had a crush on ya." Kazuichi could see the shock in Sonia's face, this was not what she was expecting when Kazuichi invited her to talk, she wasn't even sure if she could believe it. "I used that crush on you to hide other feelings," he was speaking in a tone much more serious and slower than he normally spoke in. "I think I tried to create a crush on ya because you're just so unattainable, you're a princess, and let's be honest, way outta my league." Kazuichi stayed silent for a moment, deciding on what to say next. "I think my behaviour towards ya was an attempt to make ya even more unattainable, by making it that'd you'd never even be able to like me." He looked Sonia in the eyes, which he hadn't done at any point before in the conversation. "I hate that, I really hate I did that, I know I can't ever take it back but I just wasn't thinking. I was too busy hiding shit or trying to create a fake unattainable crush to even think about how my behaviour made you feel. I really want to apologize for that." He sighed, he seemed done for now, he was probably waiting for Sonia herself to say something. She had to let it sink in for a few seconds before speaking up.

"That was not what I had expected from you," she started, "however I'm glad that you came to apologize, your behaviour was definitely something I did not appreciate." Kazuichi nodded, "ya don't have to forgive me or anything, I'm not sure if I would've either, but I did want to tell ya."  
Sonia thought about forgiving Kazuichi, his apology did seem quite sincere after all. Though, there were still some things she didn't understand. "Again, I quite appreciate the apology Kazuichi," she smiled, "but I have to ask, if I may. What did you mean when you said you were hiding something just then?" The mechanic blushed, he wasn't prepared for that question. "I- uh, let's just say that you aren't exactly my type. I am-" He cut himself off, he knew that Sonia already knew what he meant, but he couldn't bring himself to really say it, "I'm not really into blondes," was what he said instead.

They sat there for a few moments, in silence. Sonia still working through all the things her classmate just told her. Kazuichi pondering about how he'd bullshit his way out if Sonia decided to out him, she didn't look like a person who would, but you could never be too sure. "Hey Sonia," he said after a few minutes, Sonia looked up, she'd been staring at the table for a while. "Could ya maybe keep this a secret, the whole fake crush thing? I'd rather not have people question shit and ya know assume things." He drew little circles on the table while nervously waiting for her answer. "Of course," Sonia smiled slightly. After this conversation she wasn't sure if she still disliked Kazuichi or not, but even if she did, she wouldn't want to say something that would end with him in an uncomfortable situation. A situation that would lead to him potentially being outed, or at least that's what she assumed was going on, she realized it could be that she was just projecting.

But she could already imagine it happening, her telling Gundham and some other people about why Kazuichi suddenly wasn't going after her anymore. Then, rumours spreading like wildfires. Why would Kazuichi even fake a crush on Sonia? What was he trying to hide, was it that he actually wasn't into women, but into men? She spend the last few months disliking the boy with the bright pink dyed hair, but it almost devastated her thinking about how he'd feel if that imaginary scenario came true. It was clear this wasn't something he was ready for yet. 

"I will just tell people you realized I was feeling weirded out because you lost feelings for me." Her smile grew a bit wider, and Kazuichi's face brightened up, she could see the relieve glowing on his face. "Thank you so much."

That was how their conversation ended. With Kazuichi now having to deal with the fact a third person now knew of his secret, a person that he didn't really trust, a person who's intentions he wasn't sure of. Sonia in turn had to figure out how she was going to lie to her best friend, while walking to his cottage where he was waiting for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been playing among us quite a bit and I was thinking.. what if I wrote a fic that was like.. among us but with dangan characters and it'd probably be Kazuichi/Gundham centric and shit would happen, it'd probably be kinda sad and probably pretty short like 3ish chapters. It just came up in my head like yesterday and idk let me know if you're interested in that 😳


	6. More Spells and Convenience Store Raids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham finally finds something to blame for his feelings.

"I truly do not understand why he would call for you, with the sole purpose of telling you he presently does not harbor feelings for you." After Sonia was done talking with Kazuichi, she immediately went to Gundham's commode. As promised, she told him that Kazuichi had just 'lost feelings' instead of the truth. However, Sonia wasn't very good at lying. "Uh I do not know either, I think he just wanted to apologise for his behaviour." Gundham raised an eyebrow, "and you have forgiven him?" Sonia fumbled a bit with her fingers, this was the part she wasn't so sure about. "He did seem sincere," she mumbled. Before Gundham could ask any more, she changed the topic.

"So with you and-" she started, but got quickly interupted by a loud cough before she could say Kazuichi's name. It didn't surprise her that Gundham would avoid even the mention of any name. Throughout the time that she knew him, he hadn't been very good at expressing his feelings, and he still seemed rather uncomfortable at the mention of it. "These, well, feelings, you noticed them only a few days ago correct?" She still wasn't able to get that stupid love spell experiment out of her head. Secretly she knew the chance of Gundham's feelings being formed by a love spell instead of his own heart was basically zero, but she wanted to entertain the thought. "I do not remember feeling any of the sorts before, no." Then maybe it really was her fault, Sonia started thinking, there was just so much coincidence involved. She took a deep breath, "so on our first day on the island.." she started.

"I may have done an experiment, of uh- a spell I found on the internet." She blushed, it felt embarassing to say it out loud, even though Gundham was also a believer in the occult, she was pretty sure even he would frown at her actions and the fact that she even thought for a second it might have worked. "It was a love spell in an attempt to see if I could manage to have it work on Kazuichi, so his attention would turn to someone else." Gundham frowned, just as she expected, "who was the victim you were planning to make him become infatuated with?" Sonia's eyes widened and she quickly looked away, through the window, where all she could see was someone else's cabin. Of course she had picked out someone for the spell, a victim as Gundham called it, but she couldn't admit to that. "T-that didn't matter." She stared at the roof of the neighbouring cabin, she couldn't look at the breeder or he'd see through her lie. There was really only one person she could have picked, one person she was close enough with to gather samples from them. "But I think I might have failed." Sonia continued when she gathered enough confidence to carry on. Gundham was still frowning, but this time it changed from a doubtful one to a thoughtful one and he started pacing through the room. 

"Sonia, are you trying to converse with me that your spell going wrong could have to do with my," he paused, "unwanted feelings?" Sonia nodded. "That makes everything clear."   
What. That was not the reaction Sonia had expected. "I just have to bide my time until the spell loses it's power." It didn't take long for Sonia to figure it out, Gundham was trying to deny the possibility of his feelings coming from within himself. She couldn't blame him, she wouldn't want to be in love with a guy who looked like he just got barfed up from a rave party either, though she had another reason besides the obvious for that. While her friend kept mumbling on about how he was doomed, Sonia checked her phone, 3:30 pm. "Gundham I have to go, I'm going to be late for.. something." She mumbled the last word and quickly paced away as gracefully as she could before Gundham could even reply.

Sonia was pretty sure the spell was supposed to work for very long, it was only an experiment after all. If she remembered it well it was only supposed to work for 48 hours, but she supposed she could probably tell Gundham that some other time.

"Did you really tell Sonia you were going to leave her alone?" Hajime and Kazuichi had decided to raid the convenience store of it's snacks for their movie night with Fuyuhiko, seeing as Chiaki seemed to have different plans tonight. "Who told you that?" Kazuichi replied while grabbing some chips of a rack. Hajime sighed, "you do know the restaurant is a place were we all have breakfast, at the same time right?" Right. Kazuichi had forgotten about that. Well he might as well tell the truth then, or half of it at least. "Well yeah I apologised for the shit I did promised I'd leave her alone from now on." He shrugged. He could have expected that this situation would leave the others with questions but he'd rather not answer them, not even from his 'soul friend'. "Alright." After that Hajime didn't ask anymore questions, but Kazuichi could sense that he wanted to. He wasn't sure if the brunette believed him, but he knew that soon he'd proof that he wasn't lying when he said he was going to stop 'simping' over Sonia.

Later at their movie night, Fuyuhiko asked the same thing as Hajime, and got the same reply. The mechanics reply seemed to annoy the blond, "dude you've been chasing her for months, of course no one's going to fuckin' believe you when you say you're gonna leave her alone." The Yakuza had noticed the defensive tone, and decided to reply back aggressively. Kazuichi's initial response had been practically the same as what he told Hajime, but Fuyuhiko had indeed been right when he noticed his reply had become more defensive. "If you're so sure though, be my fucking guest." Kazuichi kept quiet after that, he hoped his defensive tone hadn't made anyone suspicious, he had to be more careful. The thought of people finding out about his secret made him anxious. Hajime let out an awkward chuckle after a few seconds of an even more awkward silence, "let's just start the movie."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way longer than I was hoping sorry ://. I was really struggling with this part of the story tbh and I'm not too glad with how it turned out, and it's a bit shorter too, I promise the next one is better though.
> 
> Also also, I know I JUST told you guys last time about an au idea (which I've mostly worked out the plot of I just need to actually write it now) but I had the idea for a other one 😳😳 basically.. Kazuichi in a band with Leon and Ibuki. That's most of what I got, and also Gundham apparently having a thing for drummers in this au. But idk I just.. I just.. band fic.. but idk tell me what y'all think, not that I won't write it if you guys hate the idea, but I'm just curious, again. But with this one it'll probably be a while til I write it, probably not until I finish this fic which is probably going to be around 25/30 chapters
> 
> Also last thing, sorry that there's so much from like Sonia's pov because she's not any of the main characters but uhh yeah sometimes it just fits better at those certain points.


	7. Dreams and Song Writing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ibuki writes a song and Gundham is in denial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't really feeling the last chapter so I decided to finish this one a bit earlier that I planned. See it as an apology for the last chapter being lowkey trash.
> 
> (This chapter also ended up way longer than I imagined)
> 
> I feel a lot happier with this chapter in comparison with the last, though I do feel like I've been doing too much telling instead of showing, let me know what you guys think of that. I'm not very good at judging my own writing, I tend to be rather harsh haha.

"I sense we are finally alone, mortal fiend." Kazuichi gulped, what he expected to happen when he woke up this morning. He'd woken up feeling little dazed, though he still hurried over to the restaurant, which by his surprise, was empty. Nearly empty anyway. Now he was pinned against the restaurant wall, feeling Gundham's warm breath on his lips, he was so close he could almost taste him. "A-alone? What would-" but he wasn't able to finish, for the breeder's lips crashed into his own. It didn't take long for him to greedily kiss back, he let his hand explore the other's body, while the taller was busying his hands in the Mechanics pink hair, making it even more messy than it already was. The two broke away panting and just as the two stared at each other like they were going to tear the others clothes off-

*ding dong ding dong*

The morning announcement. Kazuichi shot awake. Shit, was he just dreaming about- the mechanic blushed at the thought. It wasn't the first time he'd dreamed about the breeder, this dream had even been rather tame in comparison to some of the previous ones, but he'd still never get used to them. Kazuichi felt sweaty and a little unclean, maybe it was best if he took a shower before taking off to the restaurant. The restaurant, he felt his face get even redder at the thought.  
Kazuichi sometimes forgot to take a shower before heading out of his cottage, and then he'd often forget it again when he came back at the end of the day, he forgot to take a shower more often than he'd like to admit. However, today was a day where a shower was an excuse to turn up to the restaurant later than normal. Otherwise he was quite sure all of his classmates would be able to read everything off his face, he'd be ruined. 

He turned on the shower extra hot and closed his eyes. He felt embarassed, he should not be thinking those thoughts about Gundham. It would be much easier if he didn't think those thoughts about any man at all, but no. When 'deciding' to crush on Sonia, he had hoped it would turn into a real crush but no matter how hard he tried, it never happened. He had picked her to crush on, not only because she happened close to his actual crush, she was also unattainable. Not only was she obviously out of his league but while looking at her enough so that he was able to convince everyone he was absolutely obsessed with Sonia, he noticed that she looked at the girls differently than how she looked at guys. It was something he could recognize himself in. 

After ten minutes which consisted mostly of Kazuichi just letting scalding hot water run over his body, combined with some soap, he turned off the shower and stepped out. After grabbing a towel he wiped his hand over the condensed mirror. He really needed to redye his hair soon, his black roots were starting to become rather noticeable. At least he could hide it with a beanie until he was able to dye his hair again at home. He dried his hair until it was damp and dressed himself in the same jumpsuit he'd worn the day before, and the day before that. 

When he got to the restaurant, 20 minutes later than he normally did, a third of the people, including most of his friends, had already left. However, Ibuki waved at him from the back of the restaurant, he smiled back and quickened his pace to sit with her. "Helloooo Kazuichi! We haven't hung out in a while have we." The girl seemed as up beat as she always did. Kazuichi hadn't expected it but he got along really well with the musician. Ibuki went on to ramble about some song she was writing, it wasn't as if he wasn't paying attention, but he found himself finding it easier to take in her words when focusing his eyes on something else. 

It didn't take long for his eyes to find a certain animal breeder. The song Ibuki was writing was about two motorcycles having sex, though she was thinking about maybe switching out the motorcycles for another vehicle. It didn't take long for Gundham to find the eyes of a certain pink haired mechanic. Kazuichi was about to look away, but before he could do anything Gundham stood up and strode out of the restaurant, leaving behind a nearly full plate and a confused Sonia. The princess looked around the room to see what could have ticked her friend off, then her eyes fell on Kazuichi, who looked back at her just as confused as she had been just a second ago. Sonia however looked like everything had suddenly become clear. She stormed out after Gundham just as fast as the other had left the building, while attempting to look as classy as possible. Though she seemed to be failing at this when Kazuichi saw her almost trip over the stairs.

He turned back to face his musician friend again, that was odd, but he tried to shrug it off. Ibuki was still busy deciding whether she wanted the vehicles in her song to be motorcycles, bikes or buses. "I think trucks would be cool." Kazuichi said. Ibuki frowned thinking about his suggestion for a second, "two trucks having sex.." she then smiled excitedly, "yes! Perfect, Ibuki will immediately going to write this down!" In the blink of an eye, Ibuki had ran out of the restaurant.

It took Sonia a lot of energy before she caught up with the breeder, making her wonder if Gundham was walking really fast or if he just had really long legs. "You better not be attempting to avoid Kazuichi! That'll only lead to trouble you know, he'll be suspicious." Gundham scoffed, "I am not avoiding that mortal fiend, I am merely waiting for demonic spell that's been put on me to wear out." He slowed down slightly so Sonia could keep up with him more easily. The blonde sighed, ever since she had mentioned the spell she had tried out, Gundham hadn't been able to shut up about it. Every time his mind presumably wandered off to the short mechanic, he'd start again about the 'spell'. He'd talk about how he just wished for the spell to release him of this infatuation, and every single time Sonia sighed in an attempt to make Gundham realise how sick of it she was. 

Sonia was quite sure that the spell was a bullshit excuse, Gundham had always been rather sceptical about her experiments. Even though the gothic man believed in the occult, he always told Sonia that the internet was untrustworthy in this type of craft. The man didn't really trust the internet with any 'craft'. So it was strange to her that suddenly Gundham totally believed in the spell she had attempted. She wished for her friend to just admit defeat and realized he had a big fat crush on a man who reeked of motor oil.

Sonia was far from Kazuichi's biggest fan, but oh God, she wished Gundham would just start gushing about how much he liked the pink haired man instead of ranting about how some spell was ruining his life.

"You don't even know if-" Ibuki zoomed past and she stayed quiet for a moment, this was not something she wished the others to know about. She had vaguely mentioned the spell to Mahiru, but the girl seemed to find it rather weird an unbelievable, Sonia didn't think she'd have to worry about her saying anything. Unless she were to mention it to Hiyoko. She wasn't able to hide her annoyance when starting her speech all over again, "you're not even sure if it's the spell! For all we know it could be your own feelings." Gundham's eyes darkened, she could see he did not like that probability, he was not ready for what was most likely the truth. She quickly came with another possibility, something that would hopefully shut her friend up for a while. "Even if the spell worked, shouldn't it have effected Kazuichi too then? Wouldn't that mean the 'spell' would have made him enamored with you too?" The word 'spell' had come out a lot more mockingly than she wished it did, but Gundham didn't seem to notice that part of the sentence. 

"What?" He stopped dead in his tracks. "Kazuichi.. enamored with-" Gundham stopped himself when he noticed his cheeks getting warm and immediately reached for his scarf to hide his face. He looked at Sonia, she looked satisfied, she seemed to have struck a cord. "Exactly." She smiled. The thought of Kazuichi having feelings for him was, although impossible, nice. He felt his blush deepen, no he couldn't think that, he could not feel happy with the thought that, this, was possible. He stormed away to his cottage without even bothering to goodbye to his Sonia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why but I've been having so many ideas lately like, there's so much I can write and hopefully WILL write.
> 
> I do feel like I kinda gave Kazuichi too many friends, seeing as that doesn't really fit his personality much.. but I really wanna incorporate my Kazuichi and Ibuki friends propaganda so I think me might end up hanging out with her quite a bit in this fic 😳🤟


	8. Avoiding and Guessing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham avoids Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko and Akane play guess who

In the next few days Gundham made it his career to avoid Kazuichi, the breeder did not want to deal with his feelings. The breakfast situation would almost always be the same, Gundham would get in early, and leave the moment he saw the pink haired mechanic coming in, he even changed the schedule for his other meals so he wouldn't be there at the same time as the other. The island outside of the restaurant was more of a problem, he tended to avoid the places Kazuichi went to tinker on stuff, they weren't places he went to often anyway. Outside of that though, he could never calculate when or where he would encounter Kazuichi. He'd often just turn around and leave at the sight of him, but he knew that made him suspicious. He was contemplating on if he should just resort to staying at his cottage for the rest of the trip.

Sonia caught on almost immediately and soon expressed her annoyance. "Gundham you're being dramatic, you can't avoid him forever," was what she'd say anytime Gundham ushered to leave a the sight of one certain person. Eventually though the blonde caved in and changed her schedule do align with her friend's. Gundham knew he wouldn't be able to avoid Kazuichi forever, but he would be able to avoid him for a few more weeks until the trip was over. After the trip he'd only have to avoid Kazuichi during school and then after graduation he'd be free, though he hoped the feelings would already be long gone by then. 

It wasn't that Gundham didn't enjoy or long for having feelings for someone, or that he generally avoided it. It just so happened that he didn't want to have feelings for Kazuich Souda. He didn't even understand why he liked the mechanic, he was pretty sure the guy barely even showered once a week. If it hadn't been for that darn spell-

"He's coming to the restaurant, do you want to leave?" Sonia was already getting ready to get up. After having given up on trying to stop Gundham's overdramatic behaviour, she became his alarm bell. When Gundham wasn't paying attention himself, she'd be on the lookout for some waft of pink hair so they could bolt. "It plagues me to not finish this meal, however I prefer that over encountering that shark teethed mortal." He quickly walked out of the restaurant, Sonia tailing behind him.

Kazuichi frowned, for the past few days Gundham had left the restaurant, or any room for that matter, when Kazuichi entered it. At first he didn't think of it much, it could be a coincidence but now he started to wonder: was Gundham avoiding him? It sounded absurd, Gundham had no reason to avoid him, right?

Unless Sonia had told the secret of their conversation to Gundham. That would be possible, maybe she told Gundham that Kazuichi actually liked someone else. The breeder was definitely smart enough to figure that out himself. The mechanic shook his head, no, he was just overthinking, no need to be paranoid, surely it was just a coincidence.

He sat down with Fuyuhiko, opposite of Akane who was one of the few people still sitting in the restaurant. He didn't really talk to Akane much normally, but he hadn't talked to her at all during the trip. "Hey Souda!" The athlete smiled wide and got straight to the point."You haven't been bothering Sonia for a while, what's with that?" Kazuichi blushed, had it been that obvious? "I uh-" he mumbled, trying to come up with an excuse. He should just say he doesn't like her anymore, the story he instructed Sonia to tell everyone, yeah if he said that everything would be fine. "I actually like someone else now." If Fuyuhiko and Akane hadn't been around he would have hit himself on the head, how could he say something so stupid?

Fuyuhiko raised an eyebrow in obvious disbelief, "really now? Care to tell us who the lucky girl is?" In his panic Kazuichi didn't notice the strange accentuation the short blond put on 'girl'. Akane also chimed in before Kazuichi could think of an excuse, "yeah ya haven't been stalkin' anyone lately."  
Kazuichi's cheeks became as pink as his own hair. He knew he was rather clingy when it came to romantic interest. Maybe it was a good thing Gundham had been avoiding him otherwise he'd have to stop himself from doing anything stupid. He wasn't as clingy with his real crushes as he had ever been with Sonia though, but now was a bit too late to realise that he overacted a little bit too much.

"Well it's uh- I uhm, I realised that the way I handled it with Sonia just pushed her away so I want to do it differently now." God he was a bad liar. Immediately he could see in his classmates faces that they didn't believe him, great. "Whatever but that still doesn't tell us who." Akane said, she turned to Fuyuhiko when she realised the mechanic wasn't going to give her any answers. "Any ideas baby gangsta?" Fuyuhiko huffed at the nickname but didn't bother to correct her. "Maybe.. Mahiru." Fuyuhiko eyed Kazuichi, as if he knew something the mechanic didn't, it only left Kazuichi confused, he definitely hadn't ever shown any signs of liking Mahiru. Akane thought over that option for a moment, "no no, I think he's into blondes." She tapped her chin a few times as if deep in thought, "so it's definitely Hiyoko!"

Kazuichi frowned, he wasn't a big fan of these guesses, but he'd make it worse if he corrected them. "Anyone willing to date her must be a fucking masochist," the Yakuza grumbled. "Actually," he looked Kazuichi up and down, "he probably is one, the bastard."  
The pink haired boy gasped and yelled out: "I'm not a freaking," he lowered his voice, "masochist." 

Akane shrugged, "whatever then if you don't wanna tell us who it is.." she trailed off. Fuyuhiko in turn looked at Kazuichi with a thoughtful frown, "I know we're not that close, but you do know you call talk to me if you need to, right?" The mechanic was slightly taken aback, that almost seemed out of character for the guy. The two were friends, but he'd never seen Fuyuhiko look at him worried like that. He seemed to be hinting at something, but what would that be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh the more I write the less I like my writing, it just feels so boring and I really feel like I'm just solely doing telling instead of showing ://
> 
> I'm also thinking of like, to switch it up a bit to also write another fic while I write this one (this one would be the main focus though) but I have like three ideas and idk which one to do (none of them are this ship though btw) but idk I'll see I'll see


	9. Investigation and Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonia puts Gundham on trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that the chapters have been a bit shorter lately (or at least that's what it feels like) I'm going to try to make the next few chapters longer again.

Two days later, Kazuichi couldn't deny it anymore, Gundham was avoiding him, but why? He rolled on his side, almost slipping off the edge of his bed. There were so many possibilities but none of them made too much sense.

He knew Gundham didn't like him much and only really talked to him when he was bothering Sonia, but it couldn't be enough to just up and leave the second Kazuichi entered a room. His mind kept wandering back to the conversation he had with Sonia half a week ago, not soon after that Gundham had started to avoid him. He hadn't been obvious with anything, not the gay stuff, not the Gundham stuff, he hadn't, not at all. So it was impossible she would have found out and told Gundham right? It was what he wanted to believe, but he couldn't think of another reason. Kazuichi played with the pink braid in his hair, but he soon switched to biting on one of the nails of that same hand. "That would be bad, so bad." He mumbled to himself, his voice sounding nervously high. What if Gundham found out Kazuichi liked him, no matter how hard he'd tried to keep it a secret, and was now weirded out by it. His thinking was irrational, he knew that. Still, he gritted his teeth, he shouldn't have trusted that Sonia wouldn't tell anyone, how stupid was he even to think he could? With a sigh he looked around his messy room, mechanical parts and clothes lying entangled together. Maybe cleaning would help him distract himself from his thoughts.

"I, Gundham Tanaka the overlord of ice, am not naturally tempted by a mere mortal." The breeder said in a desperate last attempt to convince his blonde friend that he didn't have a crush on a certain highlighter haired mechanic. Sonia shook her head, "in my country lying to royalty is punishable with ten years in prison, so you better not attempt that again." Earlier in the conversation Sonia had finally decided to directly tell Gundham that her 'spell' hadn't worked, that Gundham just needed to stop denying it. "You have no proof!" He raised his voice, but Sonia wasn't intimidated, "that's wrong!" she loudly yelled back. 

Gundham hadn't expected the princess to actually sum up her proof, but she did. "First off," she started walking back and forth in the room, "you have mentioned multiple times during, and if I remember correctly even before the trip, how you thought the smell of motor oil was quite nice. May I remind you that there is one single person in our class who permanently smells like motor oil?" Gundham hoped she would leave it at that, but naturally, she wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot. "Next up you also multiple times said that you thought Kazuichi was attractive, anytime I raised my eyebrow at that, you claimed that it was just a fact. However, after having polled with all the girls on the island, I have concluded none of them agree. Do also not think I didn't notice the disappointed looks you always had on your face whenever Kazuichi came up with one of his stupid love confessions. First I thought it was just annoyance, but during this investigation I realised it must have been something else." Gundham felt his cheeks get red, he wasn't able to deny or disprove any of it, but still he had never thought of it like that, he never thought for a second those feelings were a crush. He was about to open his mouth, not in protest though, there was nothing to protest, he just hoped she was finished.

"I'm not done," Sonia shushed him, quite rudely. "You laugh", this 'laugh' being a low chuckle in his scarf in an attempt to hide it from the others, "at his jokes, which aren't even funny." She took a small breath before continuing, Gundham couldn't remember the last time she'd gone on such a long rant. "Sometimes you just watch him take apart and reassemble a machine or car when you have zero interest in mechanics." She stopped, "and seeing as most of these examples are from before this school trip, I think that proofs my previous statement of there being no way that this spell is the cause of your feelings." Sonia grinned proudly, Gundham just stared back at her in silence.

Did he really do all that? He'd never noticed how his behaviour towards the mechanic could be taken as romantic before. No that wasn't right, he'd never noticed how his behaviour, his feelings towards the mechanic had been romantic. The shock didn't leave him for a while. He knew that the fact he had a crush on Kazuichi was something he wouldn't be able to avoid for much longer, but him actually having had feelings for him for multiple weeks or even months? That was something he couldn't shake. He had to go somewhere, anywhere, to clear his head. He stood up, the two had been in Sonia's cabin, as far away from any prying eyes or ears as possible. "I have an inkling it will do me well if I indulge in the act of going on a walk accompanied by my dark devas of destruction." His cheeks still felt warm, he almost felt embarassed by being exposed til this extent. Sonia just smiled, she probably expected this reaction, "of course, go clear your head." She saw him out, which was barely necessary seeing the small size of the cabin, still it was an act she saw fit out of politeness.

After pondering for a while longer over why Gundham could possibly be avoiding him, his phone buzzed. It was a text from Fuyuhiko, apparently he Hajime and Chiaki were going swimming tonight, he 'asked' if Kazuichi was coming too. However it didn't really seem like he gave Kazuichi much of a choice. The mechanic didn't mind though, it wasn't like he was doing anything anyway and he was getting tired of thinking about that stupid breeder. Still though, he wasn't looking forward to it, Fuyuhiko had been acting weird ever since he and Akane had played guess who about his crush. He still hadn't had the chance to ask why yet, and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo what do you guys think so far? I know it might be going a little slow, but don't worry the two are actually going to interact in probably chapter 11, and then stuff will actually start to go down. But still slowly, I didn't put slowburn in the tags for nothing.
> 
> I'm also wondering, if I were to write another fic with a ship that wasn't soudam ,(I do plan on writing more fics of this ship when I'm finished with this fic but I don't really want to write two of them at the same time) what ship would you guys like to see? I'm still just going to write about the ships I like myself but I'm still curious on what you guys would like to see. That's all, have a good rest of the week!


	10. Beaches and More Beaches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham comes to terms with his feelings.

After blindly walking for what felt like hours Gundham ended up at the beach, he sat down in the sand far enough from the sea that his shoes wouldn't get wet. The tide was changing though, so it wouldn't be long before he'd have to move. Was it really true what Sonia had said? 

He hadn't even thought about the possibility that he could have liked Kazuichi for any longer than this trip, that this was just a fleeting crush that would be gone in a week or two. Next to that, it would now be impossible to blame his feelings on anything like a 'spell' if the crush had started before Sonia had tried, and failed, to cast it. Though Gundham was pretty sure he had already exhausted that excuse anyways.

The things she had said were quite true too, he knew that, he couldn't possibly deny that. Was it all really romantic though? He wasn't sure if he was ready to admit that, not to himself anyway. After all, it wasn't weird to admire someone while they're working right? Gundham just.. thought highly of people who worked hard. He just, enjoyed the tingly feeling in his stomach when he saw Kazuichi smiling proudly, eyes twinkling after he finished working on something.

Gundham's unbandaged hand gripped the beach ground tightly, the sand seeping through his fingers, his fingernails almost digging in his own hand. That didn't help relieving the sudden panic he felt though. "There must be a reasonable explanation for this," he mumbled to himself. But how could he explain the feelings he felt in those moments in any other way than butterflies in his stomach?

What was the other thing Sonia mentioned.. Jealousy was it, was that really what he felt? The more he thought about it, the more his answer leaned towards yes. Every time the pink haired mechanic came to confess his love to Sonia, of course he wanted Kazuichi to leave, he knew he was making her uncomfortable. There was also always another thought however, a thought he always pushed down far in his mind. It was him wishing, imaging that instead of Sonia, Kazuichi was confessing to him. 

Gundham shook his head, even now that was a thought he didn't like entering his brain. It wasn't like Kazuichi would like him anyway, the other had been pretty adamant on the fact that he was a straight heterosexual man. Even if he wasn't straight, Kazuichi had glared at him often enough for Gundham to know the mechanic did not like him. On the other hand, the breeder did have to admit he must have given the other the same impression. 

He stood up and took a deep breath, with the change in tide, the water was now nearly touching his shoes. Gundham let his mind wander for a bit, he knew he couldn't really deny his feelings anymore, not to himself and Sonia at least. He was also pretty sure it was impossible to call this thing a fleeting crush. So the denial wasn't a problem anymore, however that did bring up a new problem. How was he going to deal with this?

It wasn't like he hadn't had feelings for anyone before, but with those he either didn't have to see them everyday, or the feelings were very obviously returned. The opposite was the case with Kazuichi. One of the few arts Gundham hadn't mastered was hiding his feelings, romantic feelings especially. He got flustered easily, and he knew that hiding his face in his scarf was maybe even more obvious than the act of blushing itself. 

Gundham checked the time on his phone, 7:30pm, he should probably head back right now and have an actual conversation with Sonia. 

The avoidance act hadn't failed so far, people looked at him strangely when he left suddenly for seemingly no reason and it was almost met with protest from Sonia. Besides that however, it seemed like an alright strategy to continue, at least until he made up a better plan.

Gundham avoiding him upset Kazuichi, he wasn't a hundred percent sure why- No that was a lie, he'd had a crush on the breeder for months, of course the thought that his crush didn't want to even be in the same room as him upset him. Although he wished it didn't. The whole day his brain had been grinding, to the point of a headache, as to why the other would be avoiding him. For one second this afternoon, the silly thought of the reason for Gundham's avoidance being a crush, a crush on him. He had quickly shaken it off though.

Kazuichi checked the time, 7:20pm, he might as well go to the beach already. He and the others weren't supposed to meet until eight, but it didn't hurt being there earlier, it wasn't like he was going to be bored at a beach.

The breeder had never really given him friendly looks, of course he didn't have a crush on him. A few months prior Kazuichi had been fixing the motorcycle of someone from another class, it was a quick fix and thus he didn't need to take it back to his workshop. The whole time he'd been too focused on fixing the bike to notice a pair of prying eyes, however when he was finished, it didn't take long for his face to turn to see those exact prying eyes. 

The mechanic's smile fell almost immediately at seeing Gundham's intense gaze. At the moment Kazuichi was sure it was a look of distaste, a dislike and he still swore by that. "What are ya lookin' at?" Kazuichi was prone to get defensive almost immediately when he felt attacked, this time was no exception. Gundham's face quickly got red and looked away. Immediately he felt a feeling of sadness coming over him, this hadn't been the first nor the last time that Gundham looked at him like that, a look that assured Kazuichi the other disliked or maybe even hated him.

Kazuichi shook off the memory, Gundham hadn't looked at him like that in a while, he avoided thinking about the fact that Gundham hadn't looked at him at all for some time. He arrived at the beach earlier than he expected, he stopped walking right before the sand met the concrete and looked up. There he saw something, or more accurately someone, he hadn't expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehhh I'm not a big fan of this chapter :// I'm really sorry I swear I'll try to make the best one better. I really hope it doesn't feel too.. jumbled together. I hope everything made sense though. 
> 
> In other news 😳 I started another fic a few days ago so yeah if any of you guys like celesgiri check it out 😳😳  
> Don't worry this fic will still be my priority and updates for this one will come out at pretty much the same pace as before :)


	11. Broken Phones and Upper Bodies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham breaks his phone, and other happenings

"Hey!" Gundham froze when he immediately recognised the owner of the voice. He hoped that if he just didn't react at all Kazuichi would leave him alone, but alas, a few seconds later he heard a pair of bare feet running over the sand. He gripped the phone he still had in his hand a bit tighter, as if for emotional support, and turned around on his heels.

He froze again, but this time at the sight in front of him instead of a voice. Kazuichi almost always wore a jumpsuit, sometimes he tied the arms over his waist which exposed his arm, but that was all. Today, all he was wearing was simple black swimming trunks and a towel around his neck.

Gundham's stares made Kazuichi glad he hadn't hammered through the matching speedo idea he had opted to Hajime. That would have only made things more awkward.

The breeder didn't know how long he'd been staring, in shock he would have claimed but he had to admit he didn't find the other's body bad looking either, though was quickly brought back to earth by phone cracking on a stone and then splashing in the water. With wide eyes Gundham's face turned from the mechanic to the cracked, wet phone on the sand. He was almost glad he had something to distract himself, even if the thing distracting him was his phone being utterly destroyed. He crouched and picked it up but he could already see it was broken and indeed, when trying to turn it on the screen stayed black. 

The half naked teen quickly crouched down next to him. "Shit, fuck, sorry, that's kind of my fault.. for startling ya." Gundham was too flustered to say anything. Kazuichi grabbed the phone from Gundham's hand and began inspecting it. He was too focused on it to notice the other staring at him. Kazuichi was surprisingly toned, not super muscular or anything, just about what you'd expect from someone who worked with heavy machinery all day, and maybe a little extra. Gundham couldn't be sure though, even after quietly admiring the others work for weeks, he didn't know much about mechanics, for all he knew mechanics normally had absolutely no muscles.

After looking at the cracked smartphone in his hand for a minute he looked back at Gundham. He blushed, he didn't notice he'd been sitting so close to the guy who was now.. staring at him? He stood up, "huh what are you-" and then he noticed. "Oh I uhm.." he'd noticed but he wasn't sure if Gundham staring at his upper body, even though his eyes had diverted by now, was a good or a bad thing. "Uhm well you know, gotta, uh, stay fit for the ladies," he let out an awkward laugh send the other finger guns with his free hand. Gundham didn't say anything, mostly out of embarrassment.

The both of them stood up, Kazuichi still awkwardly stumbling over his words and Gundham finally sensible enough to hide his still red face under the scarf. "Mortal, hand over the electronic device, less you wish to feel my wrath." Gundham finally speaking made the other shut up, he looked up at the breeder, and back down at the phone in his hand. "But it's broken, it's useless." Gundham stuck out his hand, as a gesture for the shorter man to hand over the phone. 

"You won't be able to get a new one until we're back in Japan, do really wanna be phoneless for 2 more weeks?" Gundham dropped his arm to his side, "no I-" but before he could even start he was cut off by a now brightly smiling Kazuichi. "Right that's what I thought, I can fix it for ya then! It's not like it was totally engulfed it water and the crack is doable, I am the ultimate mechanic after all." Before Gundham could even reply, in which he was planning to decline, although he wasn't looking forward to not having a phone for two weeks he wasn't much of a technological guy anyway he'd survive, Kazuichi started to talk again. 

"Great then that's settled I'll probably have it fixed in a day or two." Gundham couldn't help but smile at the other's excitement which he again hid behind his scarf. "I'll just bring this to my cottage real quick and I'll be back in," Kazuichi quickly checked his own phone, "five minutes if I run fast." He didn't even bother saying goodbye to the other before sprinting off to his cottage. Gundham didn't mind though, the more time it gave him to get away before Kazuichi came back. He wasn't sure if the mechanic had meant for him to stay there til he came back, but he didn't want to find out.

After taking some detours in order to avoid Kazuichi, he ended up at Sonia's cottage. She opened the door almost immediately, she didn't say anything but Gundham couldn't help but notice a triumphant grin still plastered on her face. He sighed knowing he had to admit his defeat. "You were right," he mumbled almost inaudibly, "I seem to indeed harbour interest in the.. mortal we talked about." He purposefully forgot to mention the very recent incident that made him extremely sure of the case. Sonia clasped her hands together, "finally! I was getting rather sick of seeing you sulk."

Kazuichi swore he'd ran to his cottage and back as fast as he could, but by the time he came back Gundham was already gone. He couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed, though he wasn't surprised either. What would he have even talked about with him? However he did notice Fuyuhiko had come early too, now was his chance to ask the guy about his strange behaviour. "Jesus Christ, did you fucking run here or something? Chiaki and Hajime probably aren't going to be here for another 15 minutes," the short blond said when the other was finally in earshot. "I uhm.." Kazuichi awkwardly scratched his neck, not knowing what to say, "it doesn't matter, but I've been wanting to talk to you about something."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why is it so hard writing people being attracted to men omg
> 
> Anyway I think this chapter is pretty good so 😌 think I'm finally out of my self loathing phase guys
> 
> ALSO OH JESUS I WAS NOT EXCEPTING to finish another chapter of this like three days after I posted the last one, yesterday I suddenly felt like writing and I kept on writing until it was like 2am ish and then I finished it today wooooooo, anyway hope you guys enjoy.


	12. Nightly Beach Hangouts and Bedroom Pacing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuichi has his talk with Fuyuhiko and Gundham rants to his best friend.

Fuyuhiko raised an eyebrow, "talk about what?" Oh. Kazuichi hadn't thought about how he'd actually ask this. There was almost no way to bring it up in a way that wasn't extremely awkward, it wasn't like he could just say: oh hey I noticed you've been acting weird since I mentioned that whole crush thing, you don't think I'm in love with ya or anything right? No that would end up with Fuyuhiko swearing at him and the rest of the night being extremely awkward. "Are you going to fucking talk or what?" Fuyuhiko said as he was getting impatient.

Kazuichi shot up, "oh uhm, you've been acting kinda weird ever since you and Akane were doing that whole crush guessing shit so.. well I wanted to ask why." Fuyuhiko's eyes widened and he quickly started stammering out something unintelligible. The mechanic just hoped that it wasn't what he thought that it was, "it's not you if that's what yer thinking!" He had blurted it out before he could even think about what he was saying. "Shit dude that was not what I was fucking thinking for fucks sake," Fuyuhiko replied, sounding rather offended.

"I didn't really want to bring it up but fuck if that's what you thought.." he sighed. The taller boy in front of him frowned but before he could even question him, Fuyuhiko opened his mouth. "The person you like is a guy right?" he spoke bluntly, as if he didn't know of a way to let his friend down any easier. "Wh-what no- of course not I'm very, very straight. Nothing against gay people but it ain't me." Kazuichi started blurting out whatever excuses he could find, but Fuyuhiko had quickly found another argument to shush him up with, "I saw you making out with that guy a class bellow us in the boy bathroom a few months ago."

The mechanic's eyes widened, he'd immediately known what the other was talking about but he had been so sure that no one had seen him. "You saw that?" He almost whispered as if he was suddenly scared someone would hear him, and even though they were pretty much all alone on this part of the island, he was indeed scared. "Yeah.. I didn't really mention it seeing how adamant you've always been that you're straight and shit but the way you talked about it that day.. Especially the way you mentioned your 'former' crush on Sonia, like you just didn't care, like you'd already forgotten about it when you'd had a crush on her for months. It just kinda clicked I guess." Kazuichi sighed, there was no point in denying at this point, but he couldn't say he was happy about it. Chiaki already knew about it, he was pretty sure Sonia had caught on too, and now Fuyuhiko? At this rate the whole damn class was going to know within a week, it was almost comical.

Fuyuhiko started talking again to end the awkward silence. "I just uhm.. well if you ever want to talk about it or anything-" it seemed like he was going to say more but he got interrupted by a voice behind them. "It took me a while to drag Chiaki away from her switch but we're here!"

Kazuichi surely didn't mind the interuption. He appreciated the sentiment, though he especially appreciated Fuyuhiko not cussing him out, he wasn't sure what he'd ever reply to what he had said. Though with Hajime's interuption that wasn't needed. He didn't even have to think about the conversation the rest of that evening. It got dark sooner than they thought, but still they stayed on that beach long after the nighttime announcement. Surprisingly the time with his friend at a cold midnight beach, being splashed by ice cold water and laughter in the dark night was just what he needed after spending his time being an angsty teen with a, in his eyes, unattainable crush for a week straight.

It even made him forget the awkward, blushy encounter he had with Gundham earlier that evening, just for a few hours though. As when Kazuichi opened his cottage door late at night, his eyes fell on a certain someone's phone, laying cracked on his desk. He already had not that many hours left to spend sleeping, still he spend most of those lying awake in bed replaying the same scene over and over again in his head.

"I cannot believe I have been bewitched by a mortal," Gundham paced around Sonia's cottage, in which he had stormed in merely a few minutes ago. "One that looks like a highlighter threw up on him no less," Sonia mumbled. Gundham ignored the comment, "I truly believed this enamourment was miniscule, but I cannot believe how wrong I was." He stopped walking around and instead leaned against the doorframe with a sigh. "I truly cannot fathom of any way that will make me be able to face him again," he paused for a bit, "you and I both know I am dreadful at keeping my attractions secret."

The blonde nodded in agreement, she hated to admit it but it was indeed almost impossible not to notice when Gundham had taken a fancy for someone. Luckily most of the time the target of affection had found it endearing, but she couldn't say she was sure of what the reaction of the mechanic would be. He'd probably find it cute if he actually liked Gundham back but she didn't think he'd be so nice if that wasn't the case. She just had to hope Kazuichi was too blind to notice.

When Sonia looked up to see Gundham staring back at her in anticipation, she realised she hadn't responded for a while. "I agree, however I do not think avoiding him would help your case." She firmly believed it did more bad than it did good last time, and she wasn't planning on letting it happen again.

Gundham huffed, remembering his broken phone, "I don't really have a choice if I wish to ever get my communication device back." Sonia frowned at that, what was he even talking about?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any hc's for who the guy was that Kazuichi had his bathroom makeout sesh with? Hehe
> 
> Anyway I was not at all planning to update this before updating the other fic I started writing but here we are.. mainly I did that because I suddenly got multiple one shot ideas and I'm way too embarassed to talk about my fanfic writings to my friends so I'll just out it here in the hope that people read author notes.
> 
> First one short and simple, just a shit ton of hanahaki one shots in one work, because I just am a sucker for the hanahaki concept
> 
> Second one literally just popped up in my brain at like 10 pm today so like 3 hours ago. It's basically a Halloween soudam one shot though I definitely won't be able to finish it before the end of Halloween (meaning that I'll probably post it late December at the earliest so I can make it look like I'm fashionably late instead of awkwardly late) but I just got the idea and I REALLY LIKE THE IDEA LIKE SERIOUSLY IF SOMEONE IN THE COMMENTS ASKS ME TO GIVE QUICK PROMT IDEA I SHALL GIVE IT TO YOU.
> 
> But yeah that's all just wanted to share that, I literally wrote this chapter in like two hours just so I could talk about this (I feel like this makes me sound kinda sad but I SWEAR I have friends I just.. it would be very awkward to talk to them about this shit lmao)


	13. Party Planning and All Night Repairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ibuki plans a party

Ibuki sat on the dining chair so fast that she almost slipped off on the other side. "Jesus fuck Ibuki, watch out." Fuyuhiko grumbled after getting hit by the musicians arm while she was attempting to balance herself. She ignored his annoyance and immediately spoke to the rest of the group, who also happened to be the only ones having lunch at this time of day. "Ibuki just had the most amazing idea," she started with the oh so familiar excited tone in her voice.

She didn't wait for the rest of the group to ask her to continue and just went on, "Ibuki thought it would be a good idea to have a party next Friday!" Hajime immediately frowned, "you don't really plan on organising that in two and a half days right?" Ibuki looked back at him as if he'd grown an extra head, "of course I do, Ibuki can do music, Teruteru would do the snacks, Fuyuhiko can get the drinks-" The short blond cut her off, "hey which bastard said I was getting the fucking drinks?" It was a rather unreasonable task to give him, of all people in this class the only one that would be worse at passing for the age that one can legally buy alcohol was Hiyoko. Kazuichi shrugged, "well you did get the booze last time.." Fuyuhiko returned with a sigh of defeat, "fuck okay fine, I guess Peko can help me with that," he nodded at the girl sitting close next to him.

Kazuichi rolled his eyes, "come on you're just saying that because you want to hang out with your 'girlfriend'," he said the last word in an obviously mocking tone. Fuyuhiko immediately stood up, seemingly about to attack his friend, "shut the fuck up you bastard it's not like you're doing anything with the planning." Ibuki cut in, ignoring the fact that Fuyuhiko was about to deck the mechanic who himself had resorted to cowardly hiding under the table, "actually Kazuichi is going to help Ibuki set up the electronica for for Ibuki's music," she said with an oddly proud grin on her face, she had everything planned out to a t. 

A head of pink hair peaked out from the table, "actually I'll be quite busy the coming days with-" but he cut himself off when he realised there was absolutely no way of reasoning with Ibuki. He sighed, that meant he was probably going to pull an all nighter again if he wanted to finish fixing Gundham's phone before tomorrow. He already felt bad that fixing it was going to take him more than 24 hours if he had to also help Ibuki, and he wasn't planning on tarnishing his 'quick and high quality repairs' reputation by making the guy wait over two days. Kazuichi could handle all nighter though, he'd just need to get some energy drinks and he'd be fine. 

Sonia clasped her hands together excitedly, "the party was a really good idea from Ibuki, I can't wait to decorate tomorrow!" Gundham looked up from the book he was reading and frowned, "if I recall correctly the horned musician asked for us to clean and reorganise, not decorate." The breeder doubted Ibuki had planned the party to be any more than an excuse to perform and to lure in the others with the promise of underaged drinking. He hadn't meant to upset his friend with his words, but the other sighed and looked down at the floor. "Yeah I guess you're," she quickly brought a smile back on her face, "it'll still be fun though!" However she didn't sound as excited as she did the before.

After Sonia left, Gundham burried his face in a pillow. He hadn't expected to miss the presence of his mobile phone, but he did. He had no way of easily contacting Sonia through text and looking up important information, like if there was an online sale on hairgell, was an absolute hastle without the small device. He didn't even know how long it was going to take Kazuichi to repair his phone, of course he could ask but then he'd have to talk to the mechanic, besides he didn't really want to bother the other and-

He sat up straight, oh no. He'd have to talk to Kazuichi when getting back his phone, he was absolutely terrible at small talk. Not only that, Kazuichi would be at the party too. Gundham had no idea what he'd be like drunk, what if he drunkly confessed to the mechanic? He blushed embarassedly at the thought. He would just have to avoid 'drinking' anything at the party, and drink a lot of water beforehand seeing as he didn't expect there to be anything but alcohol. 

Kazuichi of a few hours ago had been right, the mechanic was absolutely pulling an all nighter. He'd only had two energy drinks and he wasn't even that tired! As long as ignored the lack of sleep he'd had in the previous few days that was. He checked the clock, it was only 4:30 a.m. and he was almost finished, if he was lucky he could even catch a few hours of sleep before he'd bring Gundham's phone early in the morning.

He yawned, "almost.. done.." he mumbled to himself. He started up Gundham's phone to test if it'd work, and of course it did. Kazuichi smiled at seeing the background, it was a picture of Gundham's hamsters all cuddled up in his scarf. It was the last he saw before succumbing to his fatigue and falling asleep on his desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay sooo posting this chapter took a bit longer than I wished it had but it's fine. It's also not as long as I would want for the average length of a chapter (though they haven't been in a while). On the other hand the next few chapters that I have planned will be closer to the length that I want the chapters to be (hopefully)
> 
> Also I just want to add that even though it's not in the tags, there will be VERY MINOR side ships in this in the near future, yes I already know which of course. But like I said they're very minor and very in the background, but I wanted to say it anyway seeing as I don't say anything about it in the tags.


	14. Fixed Phones and Pajama Pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham gets his phone back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think many people read usernames on here but if you do, then well.. I changed my username

Kazuichi woke up with his face uncomfortably pressed into the wooden desk, accompanied with pain in his back. He groaned and tried to stretch a bit, then he remembered what he had been doing before falling asleep at a desk chair in the early morning. He quickly checked the time on his phone, "shit," 9 a.m., Gundham might already be in the restaurant right now. He still hoped he'd be lucky and catch Gundham still in his cottage.

He put on his glasses before taking them off only a few seconds later. He'd rather take a few extra seconds putting in his contacts than Gundham seeing him with those horrid glasses. He didn't know how Peko and Byakuya managed to pull them off but he just couldn't. After that he quickly rushed out of the door, not even bothering to fix anything else about his appearance except for quickly pulling a beanie over his head.

Gundham was crudely awoken by the shrill ringing of the doorbell. He groaned and turned to the other side but the ringing wouldn't stop. While walking to the door, he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes but he was quite sure it wouldn't erase the tired look from his face. Normally he slept early and woke up early, but yesterday was just the one day he stayed up with Sonia and her girlfriend for a bit longer than he'd intended, so now he just wanted to sleep in, for once. Sadly Satan had other plans for him.

He opened the door, readying to give whoever was standing on the other side an angry glare. To his surprise it was a messy looking, out of breath Kazuichi. "I fixed your," he stopped and looked Gundham up and down, his eyes widening. "Uh your, uh p-phone." He saw a flustered blush on the others face. He then proceeded to take a look at himself, and he immediately saw the problem. The breeder was glad Kazuichi didn't know he normally didn't even wear pants to bed and he thanked God that he was wearing a pair this morning. 

"Oh excuse me," he felt himself getting flustered in return. "I shall immediately find some more appropriate apparal.." he returned back into his cottage but kept the door open as a sign for Kazuichi to come in.

The mechanic had to blink a few times before he stepped in, in order to avoid Gundham noticing his quite frequent glances. He saw the other take a shirt from a neatly folded pile of identical shirts. After he put it on, Kazuichi noted that he hadn't ever seen the guy without his signature long coat, even now, in the middle of summer, so even seeing him in a shirt and pajama pants was quite nude. Not that he was complaining though. Kazuichi cleared his throat, "I fixed yer phone." He reached out his hand holding the phone as far as he could, so he in turn could stay as far away from Gundham as he could. 

"Thank you," Gundham took the phone with a small smile, "I admit I was rather helpless without my mobile device." They stood there in silence for a bit, not the comforting kind of silence but the painfully awkward kind. Gundham felt it was rude sending the other away only a few minutes after inviting him in, Kazuichi on the other hand was looking for some words to break the silence.

"Oh and uh," he started, still not sure on how to word it. Gundham looked at him intensely, which didn't make him feel any more confident about his case. "I'm sure ya heard about all that.. stuff.. from Sonia but I wanted to apologise to you too." Gundham raised an eyebrow, or that's what he would have done if he didn't regularly shave them off so more accurately, he raised the skin on his brow-bone. "I wasn't very nice to you, pretty hostile actually," he mumbled the last part, "and you really didn't do anything to deserve that so I wanted to apologise." He turned to look at his shoes.

Gundham was left in awe for a bit, he couldn't remember the last time someone actually apologised to him. Then he realised Kazuichi was looking at him, anticipating a reply, "ah, the overlord of ice normally doesn't accept apologies so simply, but I shall make an exception this once." Kazuichi let out a small chuckle, mostly in relief but there was another part of him that found the others manner of speach quite endearing. Now that heavy weight was lifted off his shoulders, he felt a lot more comfortable talking.

Oddly enough the two seemingly polar opposites managed to find quite a bit to talk about. The two of them took turns talking about their interests. The pink haired mechanic felt relieved at not being interupted while talking about his favourite types of cars, the history of them and his plans to make them faster. The breeder wasn't used to this situation either, besides Sonia most of his talks about animals and their behaviour ended when he heard the other audibly sigh, but today he didn't hear a single sigh.

"Anyway.." Kazuichi leaned against the desk standing in the room, "ya haven't been avoiding me recently have ya?" He'd meant it half jokingly but it seemed to have flown over Gundham's head seeing as he looked at him like a deer in headlights, "well you see, a mere mortal like you could never endure being under my presence." Kazuichi cocked his head, "but I've been here for almost an hour and I'm fine."

Gundham nervously cleared his throat, "exactly, that means you should leave this realm immediately before you.. evaporate into thin air!" Evaporate, did he really say that? He didn't dare to question himself however, and pushed a startled Kazuichi out of the door. 

The mechanic just stood there for a while, in front of Gundham's cottage in shock. He did kind of ruin it at the end but an hour long friendly conversation with his crush seemed like a win in his book. When the shock had washed over he ran back to his cottage, screaming out the adrenaline in his pillow.

In another cottage, the mood was less celebratory. "I can't believe I really uttered that he would simply evaporate by being in my presence," he spoke in a distressed tone to his four dark devas of destruction. That hadn't been very dark lordesque of him, he couldn't believe he just embarassed himself in front of the mortal he harboured feelings for. All he could do was hope the other hadn't taken notice of his less thought out speech this morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow Sonia's gf? I wonder who that could be~
> 
> Also were getting closer to the end, well not really but we're definitely over half way methinks. So I did want to say that I do have another soudam fic planned that I'll probably post the first chapter of when I post the second to last chapter of this one. I get a lot of my motivation from basically just seeing that people read and enjoy my stuff, and most of my dr ships besides this one aren't really that popular and so I thought a steady stream of soudam fics would probably boost my confidence and motivation a bit and besides that I can write the other ships I like that won't really get that many reads. 
> 
> Well I doubt any of you really care about that, but I thought that any of you guys that might like my writing, might like knowing that I don't plan on quitting with writing fics of this ship anytime soon (though I think my other author notes have probably made this clear too)


	15. Music Venues and Their Many Equipments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a small slip of the tongue

That same afternoon Kazuichi ended up in the titty typhoon, he was still exhausted from staying up all night and Ibuki wouldn't let him near the equipment with his energy drink, so he had to do without. All he could do was hope there was nothing wrong with the equipment so he could leave as quickly as possible. He looked around the room, Sonia and Gundham were arranging the room, putting tables on the side and leaving room in the middle. It seemed like Chiaki had also come with them to help, but she had fallen asleep on a discarded chair.

The mechanic sighed, he truly wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. The 'party' was days away why did he have to check the equipment today? Truthfully it was because Ibuki most likely wanted to practice on the stage for her grand performance, but Kazuichi wished to sulk in self pity. He huffed, the lack of sleep had given him a terrible mood. A mood he'd gained by staying up all night to fix the phone of a Hot Topic employee wannabe. Kazuichi shook his head, that wasn't something he could blame on Gundham. He was the one who wanted an excuse to talk to the other. It had been a solid plan, it wasn't like Gundham would have talked to him otherwise but currently all he felt was regret from skipping out on more sleep than he already was.

"You should talk to him!" Sonia beemed when she saw her friend eyeing a certain mechanic across the room. Gundham's eyes grew wide, "I- he does not appear like he would currently appreciate my company," he mumbled softly. If his glances had been so obvious to Sonia, he just hoped Chiaki let alone Kazuichi had noticed. Though perhaps his friend was paying more attention to it than a person more oblivious to the current situation would be. "Oh come on! Didn't he spend two hours just talking with you this morning? I assure you, he must quite enjoy your company to do that." 

When Kazuichi had apologised for his behaviour and promised her to stop it, Sonia already started counting down the hours before he would break said promise. Surprisingly however he had kept his promise, besides from a daily cheery good morning and a small hi when they came across each other she didn't hear anything from him. She even felt herself getting more supportive of her friend's crush on the mechanic. 

Sonia turned to look at Chiaki who still hadn't woken up from her nap. She sighed, perhaps she should have asked Akane to help. However then Gundham would have surely made comments on how Sonia could never get any work done when Akane was around, which was of course a truthful statement. She smiled and turned back around just to see, to her surprise, Gundham striding towards Kazuichi.

"Greetings mortal," he attempted to look and sound charming in his greeting but Kazuichi seemed more focused on fixing the podium lights. Maybe he hadn't heard him.. then he heard a sigh, which made him ever more nervous. Merely a millisecond later a panicked Kazuichi turned around, so quickly he almost fell over. "Crap, I didn't mean to sound annoyed," he mumbled apologetically, sheepishly scratching his neck. "I.. didn't sleep well last night," he put on a small smile.

Gundham raised an eyebrow in confusion, the other had been in his cottage rather early that day, why hadn't he slept in then? The other let out a chuckle at his expression, "I might have stayed up all night fixing that phone of yours." The goth was slightly shocked at that, "ah, thank you but I truly do not mind being without that devilish device if it means you get to rest." Gundham didn't understand why Kazuichi smiled at that. Not one of those smiles that was only used to seem polite, but a wide genuine smile. "Glad to see you care about my health, Gundam." The breeder didn't notice the slight pink that had appeared on Kazuichi's cheeks, for he was too busy feeling his own face burn up.

"Hey!" Gundham was glad his attention was getting ripped away from the pink haired boy. "I think we have finished it off quite well here," Sonia continued when she grabbed Gundham's attention, he noticed the princess had finally managed to wake up Chiaki and together they had finished cleaning and organising the rest of the venue. "You two can stay here but I'm going to-" Sonia got interrupted by the girl next to her, "you're going to trade saliva with Akane, we know," she grabbed Sonia's wrist and dragged her towards the door, "bye Gundham!" she yelled before finally closing the door behind her and the blonde.

Now it was time for Kazuichi to look confused, "it seemed like they were in a rush to leave." He shrugged it of merely moments but Gundham had an idea of what the two girls were trying to do, he was all alone with Kazuichi now after all. The two girls seemed to have way too high expectations of him however, he'd probably never be able to even get close to showing the other his romantic interest in the other. Gundham would never admit that though, that would do too much damage to his fragile ego. "Well the dark lady seemingly has much more thrilling things to uncover."

"I'd honestly never thought of those two together but I guess it fits," the mechanic nodded, seemingly deep in his thoughts for just a few seconds. Gundham cocked his head, "you do not mind?" He knew the other had claimed he currently harboured no interest in the princess but he'd expected him to at least be a little disappointed by this revelation. Kazuichi shook his head, seemingly not understanding what Gundham was getting at. "No it's not like I have a crush on her or something, you know, I never di-" he froze, nothing moved except from his face turning from something casual into being absolutely mortified. "Wha-"

"Nothing," he said, before Gundham could ask him about his unfinished sentence. "I think I should go back and take nap or something, this sleep deprivation clearly isn't doing me any good," he started hurriedly packing his toolbox before slowly coming to a stop. He whispered something, it was so quiet Gundham was sure Kazuichi hadn't meant for him to hear it. But he had heard it, "I never liked Sonia, not like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter is mostly filler but, the next chapter will.. start a certain chair reaction of events :)
> 
> Also apologies if I messed up anything spelling wise or other small mistakes, I'm a little tired myself today, but if you find any please tell me so I can correct them.


	16. Parties and 2000s emo band front men

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuichi slips up just a little bit.

Kazuichi had been the first to arrive at the titty typhoon, Ibuki had asked for him to set up the lights. To his dismay it had taken him longer than he thought and by the time he was done, most of his classmates had already entered the building. Ibuki was getting her guitar ready, it was pretty obvious this party had been an excuse to share her music with everyone. Music that no one, except Hiyoko, listened to willingly.

"Christ this is lame," was the first thing he heard when he came across Fuyuhiko. "Oh come on it's not that bad," Kazuichi replied. Though at looking around the room he almost wanted to take it back, the place didn't look horrible but it did give off the vibes of a middle school dance but with better food and alcohol. "Well I guess Sonia tried her best," he mumbled in an attempt to take back his original defense. 

The mechanic knew from some unfortunate events in the past year that he was quite the lightweight, so when Fuyuhiko offered him a beer he was hesitant. After a few seconds though he took it, "thanks," he sighed. It seemed like neither of really felt like talking, as for the next few minutes they stood there in silence, with the calming sound of Ibuki screaming in the microphone in the background.

It didn't take long for Kazuichi's eyes to find a certain gothic breeder, who had struck conversation with Hajime and Sonia. For a while Kazuichi pondered on if he should ditch his blonde friend and try to join the conversation of the others. On the other hand though.. in the past Kazuichi had been quite skillful in admiring his crush from afar. Besides arguing with him from time to time he barely even spoke to him. Although this trip did end with him talking to Gundham multiple times, did he really want to go on with that?

Of course he quite enjoyed talking to the other, and the sound of his voice was practically like music in his ears. Kazuichi didn't have much experience with crushes though and the only time he pretended he had one he was what one might describe as a creep. He could argue that it was him overdoing his act so no one suspected anything, and that could surely be the case. Still, in the back of his mind the thought always lingered, what if he unknowingly were to act the same with Gundham? He'd rather barely know the guy and never see him again after high school ended than have Gundham hate him, or worse..

He shook the thought away, that could be an inner debate for another day. Though he did decide he'd avoid attempting any conversation with the breeder for now. It wasn't like his last few conversations with him ended very well anyway. Gundham seemed to be enjoying himself though. Not only that but he also just looked really good tonight, Kazuichi had of course always found the other attractive but for some reason the cheap colourful lightning he'd installed himself really did him justice. He-

Suddenly Kazuichi felt a hand on his shoulder, "you might wanna stop staring at Tanaka bastard, I think other people might start to notice and think you're in fuckin' love with him or something." Fuyuhiko laughed, not taking it very seriously until he saw his friend's face freeze. "Come on," Kazuichi quickly mumbled, "I totally wasn't starin' at him or anythin'," he let out an awkward chuckle while trying to wiggle his way out of this situation. "I mean I just appreciate the community service he's doing." Fuyuhiko frowned, "what commu-"

"Community service with his uh- his uh, face," Kazuichi immediately regretted saying that, he was just making things worse and they hadn't even been that bad to begin with. Fuyuhiko had just been joking around and of course he had to go and panic. "Shit," it had taken him way too long to realise, he should have connected the dots the moment Kazuichi's gaze kept lingering on Gundham for longer than 15 seconds, but now he realised..

"You're fucking with me.." he mumbled, still finding it unbelievable, and Kazuichi just stared at his feet knowing that Fuyuhiko had finally caught on to one of his many slip ups. "You're in love with Gundham aren't you" it wasn't even a question, it was a clear statement, there was no way Kazuichi was going to be able to convince him otherwise. "Shut up!" He yelled out, "someone might hear you, jeez." Fuyuhiko glanced at Gundham, then looked back at his friend. "Shit, I knew you were gay but I didn't think you'd be into the kind that looks like they could be the front man of an 2000s emo band." 

Kazuichi sighed, half out of relief, this reaction was better than any of the horrid scenarios he'd made up in his head about any of his friends ever finding out about his secret crush. "Yeah.. sometimes I wish my taste in men wasn't.. what it is," he mumbled to the amusement of his friend. 

"Heyya!" Kazuichi turned around to see Ibuki infront of him, he hadn't even noticed that the music had stopped. "Peko told Ibuki that we're doing truth or drink, and Ibuki can't wait to see your drunk shenanigans again!" She laughed and ran over to the others before either of them could reply. Peko sighed, "the others were getting rather tired of Ibuki's.. interesting music style. Mahiru claimed I was the only one who could get her to stop." Kazuichi groaned in reply, "you really couldn't think of something else?" The swordswoman just shrugged and before leaving to follow the musician she said, "that part was Akane's idea."

Kazuichi let out one last sigh before joining the others while Fuyuhiko grabbed some stronger alcohol from under the table, which Kazuichi didn't even know he'd acquired. He had a strange feeling like this game of truth or drink wasn't going to end well for him. Though that might have been because the last time he drank with his friend he ended up clinging to Hajime the whole night, he also would have ran down the street naked if Fuyuhiko hadn't stopped him. He was definitely going to do something stupid again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny story, this chapter and the next were actually supposed to be one chapter but as I was writing this one I realised it got the the average length of one of my chapters a bit earlier than I thought.
> 
> Also, I added this to to the general fic notes but I wanted to add it here too. I made a twitter account :D I wanted a place to talk about my fics on and stuff so I made that twitter account. So if you guys are interested in following me, my twitter @ is the same as my username here so it's @/lesbians4souda


	17. Truth or Drink and Scarfs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids play truth or dare

Kazuichi sat in between Ibuki and Fuyuhiko, he would have preferred to sit as far away from Gundham. Sadly there were only two other people dividing him from the man that he feared would be his ultimate drunk demise.

Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes at his stressed friend, "oh come on it's not like it's dare or drink the worst you can do is say something stupid." 

"Yeah something stupid like blurting out a love confession," Kazuichi mumbled back, not convinced.

"A love confession?" Sitting next to Fuyuhiko gave Hajime a clear earshot of their conversation, "I thought you were over Sonia?"

Chiaki, surprisingly didn't have her eyes glued to a portable console tonight and slightly tugged on Hajime's arm. "I really don't think this is about Sonia," she gave him a meaningful glare, which told him to shut up.

Her friend frowned, "do you guys know something I don't know?" He turned to Ibuki, "Don't tell me you know too!"

The girl shook her head, though it took her a few seconds to do so, "Ibuki has no idea, she just assumed Kazuichi is in love," she accentuated the last word, elongating the o. "Maybe Ibuki will write a song about it," she mumbled and disappeared into her thoughts.

"I suppose we should start then," Sonia said when no one else spoke up, "although I admit I am not very knowledgeable on the concept of this 'truth or drink,'" she mumbled after.

Fuyuhiko sighed, "someone asks you something, and you either reply with the truth or take a shot. Then you ask someone a question, pretty fucking simple actually."

"Ibuki will start!" The musician yelled out before anyone else could say anything, "Sonia, are you really a princess or did you fake it to get into hope's peak?"

Sonia gasped, "I would never even think of getting into a school by deceitfulness," Kazuichi wasn't sure if Sonia was truly offended by the question or speaking more light-heartedly, "of course I'm a princess!" She stayed silent for a few seconds before realising it was her turn to ask a question now.

"Ah I'm not really good at thinking of entertaining questions.." she trailed off before turning to face Hiyoko. "Hiyoko, what is.. your favourite musical genre?"

The blonde didn't say anything and cocked her head, a grossed out frown coming on her face. "That's probably the worst question I've ever heard," she pouted but eventually she did answer, "metal or something I guess." It came out as a mumble, it was clear the rather boring question had ruined her mood.

"Whatever, Fuyuhiko, is it true you and Peko are going at it like rabbits?" She grinned at the sight of Fuyuhiko's face flushing red.

"Hiyoko, you can't just ask it like that!" Mahiru yelped before Fuyuhiko could defend himself. 

"Peko and I are not doing any of that shit," Fuyuhiko started when he had slightly calmed down. "I'm not interested in Peko like that," putting emphasis on 'peko'. The swordswoman next to him cleared her throat, "me either."

"Yeah, fuck no, anyway," his eyes scanned the room until they fell on Gundham, a sly grin formed on his face. When Kazuichi saw what his friend was planning, it was already too late to stop him. 

"Gundham, let's say, hypothetically, you had to make out with someone in this room who would you go for." The grin not leaving his face, as Gundham's turned beet red.

Kazuichi turned to look at his friend, a shocked expression on his face, "I didn't think-" he started to mumble but got interrupted by his blond friend. 

"I'm trying to help you out here, fuckin' bastard." Unsurprisingly however, Gundham downed a shot instead, face still bright read. 

"Well I suppose we should move on from this.. unsavoury question." He turned to ask someone else a question though Kazuichi didn't see who, he was distracted by Fuyuhiko's hushed whisper. 

"At least we know he's into someone now," Kazuichi frowned but before he could ask about it, Fuyuhiko continued. "I mean did you see how fucking nervous he got when I asked.. shit, he must have been thinking about someone sticking their tongue in his throat.

Kazuichi wrinkled his nose, "God, did you have to say it like that? You're making it sound gross." Kazuichi looked around, it seemed like teruteru was subjected to the questioning now.

"Still though, let's say he does like someone. That doesn't mean it's me, unless that's not what you're going for." He mumbled the last part. He wasn't sure why Fuyuhiko seemed to be trying to help him but he didn't want to make him angry by asking.

Fuyuhiko aggressively shook his head, "fuck no, I'm trying to help you a big titty goth boyfriend. 'Cause you're my.." he trailed off for a bit, "friend I guess."

He quickly changed subjects, "next I'll try to find out if he's into mechanics with badly bleached hair and shit hygiene." Kazuichi gasped, "what the hell! I don't smell that bad-" but before he could continue his tangent, it was his turn in truth or drink.

The question ended with Kazuichi taking a shot, and so the game went on. Half of the questions were rather bland and uninteresting, the other half were welcomed with giggles from the group, which came louder and more frequent as the night went on.

"Kazuichi!" Ibuki pointed at her friend with the same excited tone she used for most of her sentences. Ibuki had been asking the most embarassing questions throughout the game, all he could do was hope Ibuki would go soft on him because they were friends.

Her eyes darted over to Gundham for a millisecond before she asked her question, "who d'ya think is the hottest in room?"

For a few second Kazuichi forgot he was in a room full of people, instead of just being with two of his friends. "Well I guess Gundham is pretty fuckin' hot without that stupid scarf on-" then he realised everyone staring at him. 

Then he realised Gundham staring at him.

"Shit I mean uh," he started to stammer, "he looks good with the scarf too- crap no I mean uh," he let out an awkward chuckle, "I don't think he's hot he's just, objectively very good looking." Multiple suspicious frowns let him know that didn't make him look any better. 

Kazuichi wished the ground would open beneath and engulf him. "I uh, I think I'm gonna go.. yeah." With that he dashed out the titty typhoon.

He didn't stop running until he'd slammed the door of his cottage behind him and crashed onto the bed. The mechanic didn't even have time to catch his breath before an aggressive knocking started at his door.

"Fuck."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little bit of a mess I think but that's mainly because I'm not great at writing conversation heavy chapters and this kind of is one of them.
> 
> Also haha I really didn't mean to not update for a month, I wish I could say I was busy but I was mainly playing video games so I was not very busy to be honest. But I'm planning to update more regularly again! Though first I need to update the other two fics I abandoned the last month or even longer for some.


	18. Letters and Disappointment

Seconds later Gundham's eyes were still widened in shock, had he really said that? No it couldn't be, at least he couldn't mean it.. like that right?

Sonia leaned in closer to whisper something in his ear, "maybe you shouldn't check on him," before he could respond, Ibuki had jumped up.

"Ah this is all Ibuki's fault, she'll go check on him, you guys play on," she dashed out of the building before anyone could protest.

Gundham felt a slight feeling of disappointment wash over him, although he doubted that Kazuichi would enjoy seeing him right now.

When Kazuichi walked to the door, that was still getting banged on, he was honestly starting to worry it'd break under the pressure, he wasn't sure on who to expect. But he wasn't surprised when he opened the door to see Ibuki rushing in his cabin, almost knocking him over.

Immediately she started speaking rapidly in a slightly panicked tone "I'm so sorry!" Before Kazuichi could say that it was fine, although he wasn't sure what was, Ibuki gestured for him to sit next to her on the bed as if if were her own.

She sighed, "I'm sorry if I knew that would happen I wouldn't have asked the question," her cheery persona had now fully dropped, "honestly I probably shouldn't of anyways. I didn't mean to humiliate you I'm sorry."

Kazuichi frowned, not entirely sure what she was getting at, or why she was apologising for that matter. "It's fine, I just overreact to stuff easily, you couldn't have known that would happen" he let out an awkward laugh. Ibuki's expression brightened, though it quickly turned guilty again.

"Well that's only half true, Fuyuhiko, Akane and I, we might have made a bet.." Ibuki didn't look him in the eye but he could catch a slight grin on her lips. Then she tilted her head up to look at him, the guilt wiped off her face, "and I won!"

"Wait what?!" Kazuichi asked bewildered. "They each owe me fifty bucks," the grin on her face was now prominent and proud. "W-what are you talking about?"

"Huh? Oh we bet on who you had the hots for, and I know you always the hots for those scene band singers, so I immediately thought Gundham," she vaguely gestured with her hand as if it wasn't important.

"I-" but nothing came out of his mouth, the fact that three people had found it important enough to bet on whoever his crush may be, made his brain malfunction. Hey wait, who had Akane and Fuyuhiko even betted on? Before he could even open his mouth to ask, Ibuki started up again.

"But that doesn't matter," she clasped her hands together, "you and Gundham do."

"There is no me and Gundham," he stuttered out in reply, his cheeks flushing a bright red. 

"I'm sure he'll think otherwise after you drunkly talked about how hot he was, like a lovestruck fool," Ibuki dramatically clutched her heart and let out a teasing chuckle.

Kazuichi's eyes widened is realisation, "fuck he's gonna think I have a crush on him."

"But you do-"

"He's not supposed to know that!" He burried his head in his hands, "he's gonna think I'll creep on him like I did to Sonia, I can never face him again."

"No, no, no," the horned girl scooted closer and wrapped an arm around her friend, "he won't think that." They sat there for a few moments before Ibuki jumped up, a light bulb having gone off in her head. "Write him a letter! You can say it was, oh I don't know, a misunderstanding or something, and you won't have to face him."

"Hmm," the mechanic pondered for a moment. "I guess that doesn't sound too bad but-" he cut himself off. Something in him, the tiniest hope thay maybe Gundham liked him back, actually wanted to talk to Gundham. However fear of rejection and embarassment overpowered those feelings.

He sighed, "fine, I'll write something tomorrow.. you'll have to read it over though, you know how bad my handwriting gets."

Ibuki nodded, "of course! Ibuki'll tell everyone you're okay, everyone's probably worried, but she'll be back in," she quickly checked the clock, "fifteen." She then sprinted away without another word.

Kazuichi supposed it was best if he wrote the letter sooner rather than later, the thought of trying to slip it down Gundham's door just to be greeted by Gundham himself felt nightmarish. Doing it when he was sure the other was asleep was a much more comfortable plan.

Maybe he'd even ask Gundham to meet him somewhere in the letter.. he quickly shook his head at the thought, no, he was mortified enough already, he didn't need anything more added up to it or he might die of embarassment.

It didn't take long for his thoughts to be interupted by his unlocked cabin door swinging open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter is rather short :/  
> And also that it took quite long for me to post it. My motivation in writing and a lot of other things too have been down lately, but no worries I think I'm slightly getting it back in the writing department!


	19. Breakfast and Bad Handwriting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kazuichi refuses to leave his cabin and Gundham and Sonia have trouble reading a certain letter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit I wasn't a huge fan of some of the past chapters I wrote for this fic, but I quite like this one so I hope you enjoy it too!

For once, Kazuichi was welcomed by a polite knock on his door, until said knocker figured out the door wasn't locked, and so, opened the it. "Ibuki noticed you weren't at breakfast this morning," the girl said with a disapproving shake of her head, though she didn't seem surprised, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day." She shoved a plate full of breakfast related foods in Kazuichi's face.

"I wasn't hungry," he lied. Ibuki shook her head, "there is no need to lie to Ibuki," she said it with a smile. "But Ibuki also thinks you should not worry so much, everyone has long forgotten last night, except Gundham and Sonia of course."

Kazuichi perked up at that, he didn't feel surprised at hearing that, of course when someone says you, or your best friend is a hot piece of ass and proceeds to run off right after, you're likely to still remember that the next day. It was different when your thoughts are directly affirmed though.

"About that," he started hesitantly, and immediately put the first thing he saw on the plate in his mouth, to avoid having to finish his sentence for a few seconds. "Did Gundham show any sign of reading my uh, letter?" The nervousness in his voice was impossible to miss.

It seemed like a lightbulb had gone off in Ibuki's head, "that's what Ibuki wanted to talk to you about!"

Gundham squinted at the wrinkly paper in his hands, it had been like that since he'd found it on his doormat this morning, as if the sender had crumpled the letter up previously and smoothed it out again soon after. "I'm not even sure if those are words," Sonia mumbled next to him, she'd been attempting to help him decipher the letter. Neither had been successful.

"I'm surprised they didn't send a text instead, I thought that was the norm here, a letter seems quite abnormal don't you think?" She noted, it had merely been an observation but Gundham still replied.

"I suppose a letter is more romantic than a measly text," he mumbled. Sonia let out a small gasp, "so you are hoping it's from Kazui-"

"Or perhaps the person in question simply did not possess my contact information," he cut her off. Though this also solidified Sonia's suspicion, she hoped he wouldn't be let down by the time the letter became eligible to them.

"Good morning to you two!" Ibuki spoke loudly, the other two hadn't noticed her creeping up. Gundham quickly attempted to hide the letter, but of course Ibuki had already seen it. She grinned, "you got that letter today right?"

Gundham gave her a suspicious look, "that's true, however I don't know how you could have come by that knowledge."

The grin was still plastered on her face, "Ibuki knows a thing or two, didn't think he had it in him though." She took a seat on their table, Gundham was going to comment on how there were more than enough chairs, but the punk girl spoke again before he could.

"Ibuki saw you were having trouble with reading Kaz's handwriting," Gundham merely nodded in reply. He felt butterflies in his stomach at the information that the letter had indeed been from Kazuichi.

Ibuki stook her hand out, signing to Gundham to hand her the letter. "Ibuki always forgets that not everyone is able to read her friend's handwriting," she said after Gundham reluctantly handed her the letter. Her eyes zoomed over it with a smile that seemed almost proud. Then she started reading it, abnormally quiet for her standard, so no one but the two people in front of her could her it.

"' _Hey Tanaka,_ ' Ibuki would like to note that at least four alternative introductions have been crossed out before this one, ' _shit I'm super sorry for last night, and even more sorry if it made you uncomfortable. I swear I don't mean to Sonia you or anything like that, if you think that, I don't know if you do._ '"

She paused, for a moment, squinting at the words that came next. Sonia had a slight frown on her face, occasionally cringing up when Kazuichi's words had seemed overly embarassing. Gundham on the other hand had a stupid, goofy grin stuck on his face.

"' _not that I don't stand by what I said yesterday_ -' a lot is scribbled out after this," Ibuki commented again, "like a whole paragraph, ' _I guess what I'm trying to say it, I admire your commitment to community service. Really didn't mean to blur that shit out though. I think that all I gotta say but I get it if you wanna talk to me face to face, I'll be in the beach house at 8 pm tonight. Won't expect you to come though, so I'll be waiting there for 15 minutes max._ ' Lots of letter closings scribbled out again. ' _bye, Kazuichi Souda._ '"

"That's all," she handed Gundham back the letter. When he looked at it again, it indeed looked like a lot of the words had been blacked out with pen. Perhaps that had been part of the reason why he hadn't been able to read it himself. Though it seemed like now the letter had been read out loud, it became more readable to him to.

Ibuki jumped up, "oh! Ibuki should run, she has to make sure her sulking friend eats breakfast, bye!" Before either of the two could say anything in reply she'd sprinted away.

"Well," Sonia started up again, "it does seem like something Kazuichi would write, I don't imagine him being much of a magician with words." Gundham nodded, still staring at the thin paper in his hands.

He cleared his throat, "do you suppose I should converge with him this evening?" Sonia stared at him like he'd grown an extra head, "why of course, I assumed you had already made that decision." And perhaps he already had.

Ibuki told her friend everything, up until she herself ran off, she didn't think he'd find it interesting if she told him about how she'd put everything she could find on a plate. She'd never really payed attention to what food he liked, she assumed if she took a bit of everything, he must find something edible. But that would have been an extremely uninteresting story to tell.

Kazuichi groaned and burried his head in a pillow, "you're saying my hand writing is so bad, you had to read it to him? I don't even have to bother going to the beach house now." His words became almost ineligible through the muffling of the pillow.

"It's not like you didn't know, Chiaki told you last week that your handwriting looks like that of a five year old," Ibuki shrugged and plucked some uneaten strawberries from his plate and ate them herself.

"Not helping, Ibuki," Kazuichi said without lifting his head from the pillow. The girl ignored his comment, "Ibuki does think you should go to the beach house, Gundham seemed to appreciate the letter."

Kazuichi knew she was just trying to cheer him up, but he would go, he'd decided it last night. He would step over his cowardice and wait there, even if just for fifteen minutes, no matter how increasingly embarassing and disappointing it was going to be with every second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the it's clear what parts are letter and which are just Ibuki talking, if not, let me know.
> 
> I would also like to inform you all that although everyone is always saying "Gundham big tittie", Kazuichi actually happens to have the same chest size as Mondo. Let that sink in.


	20. Kissing and Closets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gundham and Kazuichi have their little beach house meeting.

"Do you suppose I look.. adequate?" Gundham spun around to face his friend, who clasped her hands in excitement. "Why you look more than adequate, he'll fall in love with you instantly if he wasn't already!" He knew Sonia was exaggerating, though he did appreciate her attempt at boosting his confidence. He hadn't strayed very far from his normal look, though he had put more detail in his eyeliner than normal, and after Kazuichi's comment from last night, Gundham thought he'd appreciate it if he came without the scarf he usually wore around his neck. Oh, and he'd also taken some mints, just in case.

"I ought to leave now, I do not wish to be late," Gundham started to strut towards the door but he stopped when he saw Sonia frown at him. "Gundham, if you leave now you will be twenty minutes early," Gundham turned red in response. "Why I- I do not wish to keep him waiting there," looking at Sonia's face he realised it was impossible to find a good excuse, and so, he dashed out of the cabin.

"Wait, Gundham!" She yelled, but he was long gone.

With every step he took, the beach house came closer and with every step he felt more tense. Kazuichi checked his phone, it was five minutes before eight, but he supposed sitting there for twenty minutes instead if fifteen didn't really change much. He didn't expect Gundham to come, the breeder had no reason to talk to him. After all, it really was just Kazuichi finding him attractive.. maybe he had overreacted with the whole running away and writing letter thing, he thought to himself.

While deep in thought he didn't realise he now stood eye to eye with the beach house door. He took a deep breath before he took the door handle in his hand, and opened the door.

"Oh, I uh, didn't expect you here," the words had left Kazuichi's mouth before he could do anything about it. There Gundham sat, it looked like he'd been there for at least a few minutes, and did he look hotter than he normally already did or was that Kazuichi's imagination?

"Was that not an invitation that you delivered to me?" A frown set on Gundham's face, he almost made a move to leave.

Kazuichi quickly waved his hands, "no uh, crap, yes I did invite you, just didn't expect ya to come," after an awkward chuckle he sat down next to the goth, who surprisingly was sitting on the ground. "Didn't keep ya waiting here too long did I?" 

Gundham quickly shook his head, "no, I arrived here mere moments before your arrival." If Kazuichi had noticed the lie, he didn't show it. 

"So uh," Kazuichi fiddled with his fingers, "what else did ya wanna speak about?" Gundham turned beet red, and he immediately regretted his decision of not wearing his scarf. "I mean you wouldn't have come here if there's wasn't anything else ya wanted to talk about right?" Kazuichi continued awkwardly, getting more fidgety every second Gundham didn't reply.

"Ah, well," Gundham started although he didn't know how to continue. He instinctively reached for his scarf, to again realise it wasn't there. He started speaking but didn't dare to look Kazuichi in the eye, "I suppose I was wondering.. yestereve when you said I was," he cleared his throat, "fuckin' hot," he had attempted to mimic Kazuichi's tone, "you do not suppose there was more than just a lustful or aesthetic undertone? I don't imagine there was perhaps a romantic meaning.. right?" He violently shook his head, "of course I do not wish to presume anything, I understand my powerful aura could lead one, especially one such as yourself, to believe you are attracted to me."

He got interrupted by a chuckle, he looked up to see Kazuichi looking at him with an amused frown. "Your rambling is so.. cute." Gundham was taken aback, not sure whether to be offended or flattered.

Kazuichi's face turned serious, "but, uh. When I said you were 'fuckin' hot', I hope you don't think that was me saying I just wanted go get in your pants or something," he blushed. Gundham felt ashamed to note he had thought that, not in those words but he surely did think of the possibility. "Perhaps," he mumbled.

"Oh," Kazuichi looked down. "Well I didn't mean it like that," he was struggling to find words. Gundham suddenly noticed how close their faces were, he could feel Kazuichi's breath on his face, count the freckles on his face and he had to resist putting a stray hairlock behind Kazuichi's ear. Kazuichi glanced at his lips. "I mean it like this."

Before Gundham knew it, Kazuichi put a hand on his cheek and pressed their lips together. It took the other a few seconds to kiss back, but when he did, it was messy. Gundham had absolutely no kissing experience prior to five seconds ago. He wasn't even sure where exactly he should place his hands, but eventually they ended up in Kazuichi's hair, which felt rather dead from the amount of times he must have bleached it. He didn't mind though.

Kazuichi felt surprised when he noticed that Gundham most probably never kissed anyone before this. He detected him making all the same small mistakes he made during his first kiss. In all honesty, Gundham kind of sucked, but Kazuichi didn't mind. He pulled them closer together, so close that he was now practically sitting on Gundham's lap.

He was sure he could continue this for a while longer, if they hadn't gotten interupted by someone tumbling out of the closet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit it's been a while since I've written a kissing scene or anything like it, so my apologies if it's not really up to standard.
> 
> I wonder who interupted their moment, it might not be who you expect..
> 
> We're also quite close to the end now, a few more chapters and this fic will come to a close. :)


End file.
